Category Archives: Case Studies

The Social Media sensation appeared in a video article on how the pandemic is changing packages

Digital Renegade Mariyah May, aka mooyayah, is one of the most beloved lifestyle and comedic influencers on TikTok. Her content ranges from cosmetic videos such as makeup and nails, to comedy skits, art, and everything in between.

With her wide range of content, Mariyah has amassed 5M followers on TikTok including more than 240M likes. Most recently, her audio was used in Shelby Holliday’s video for the Wall Street Journal, which discusses the effects the pandemic has had on the shipped package industry.

As has been seen across social media, recently many people have been receiving products they ordered online in a much larger box than what is necessary, to which many find is very wasteful. Shelby takes a deeper dive into the reasons behind this mysterious pattern, and uses Mariyah’s audio to express the feeling one might have when receiving a larger than necessary package.

See the WSJ video here, and Mariyah’s original TikTok here!

The cause of this is due to the spike in e-commerce retailers experienced during the pandemic. With people confined to their homes, everyone turned to online shopping for goods, whether that be cleaning supplies, clothing, makeup or items to improve their home. As a result, cardboard boxes were in extremely high demand, causing the prices of cardboard boxes for retailers to soar. Now, companies are looking to accelerate and optimize their packaging and shipping costs.

Here are some of the changes in packaging you may notice in the future:

1. More Mailers – These are lighter than cardboard boxes, cheaper, and easier to pack. They additionally are much easier to recycle.
2. Minimization of Boxes – Companies are shifting toward Amazon’s “Frustration Free Packaging” technique. They are hoping to stray away from shipping boxes inside of boxes as it is sent from the manufacturer to the retailer through offering third parties incentives for being more efficient with her packaging. This also helps the retailer save money, however will not affect the prices of the products you order.
3. Skip the Shipping – Many sites are pushing customers to travel to the store to pick up their order as opposed to having the products shipped to the buyer. They often incentivize this by offering coupons or even discounts. This further has led to many companies partnering with Happy Returns, which allows consumers to drop goods off without being packaged, which has led to a drastic increase in returns.

So now comes the big question: how will retailers make the unboxing experience exciting with no box? A huge trend throughout social media has been influencers unboxing products from certain companies, and sharing with their followers an honest review on the product. 

Unboxing content not only helps grow an influencer’s audience as well as engagement, but further allows retailers to advertise their products to a wide audience in a more genuine and authentic way as opposed to commercials.

While retailers are moving towards a more efficient as well as environmentally friendly way of packaging goods, it’s going to be interesting to see how they will take action to further improve the unboxing experience so many look forward to in anticipation of a delivered package. Industry leaders such as Amazon are leading the charge with some of the techniques described above, and it will be interesting to see how their packaging continues in the future. 

The premier manufacturer of plant based nontoxic alternatives to odor elimination, Azuna has gone all in with Ilana Muhlstein vesting in the Company and becoming it’s global spokesperson. Muhlstein, a mom, wife, entrepreneur and best-selling author has always advocated for moms to live happier and healthier lives with the mindset, tools and products they use. Finding Azuna, a product that works well and protects her children from harmful chemical sprays and dispensers, was the perfect fit for the mom of two on a mission.

Muhlstein sees Azuna as the clear choice for air fresheners, “I know how harmful unwanted chemicals can be especially around kids. When Azuna was introduced to me I couldn’t believe how good it smelled, and it truly eliminated odors in the kitchen, bathroom, closets, everywhere.  And it lasts for 60-90 days. That is an incredible value for your average family”. Azuna is also anti-microbial which cleans and neutralizes air against mold, mildew, fungus and bacteria. And maybe best of all, it’s pure and natural because it has no harmful additives or chemicals. 

Azuna started  in 2019 and was founded by Scott Dancy who was looking for a way to get bad odors out of his laundry room. He partnered with a company that made cleaning products and developed Azuna. Scott realized the power and long lasting nature of the product and the light bulb went off that everyone around the world needed a plant based product that was safe around kids and got rid of odors effectively and for up to 90 days.   

Scott Dancy, Azuna CEO sees Ilana as the perfect fit, “As a mom, an expert in healthy living and truly someone vested in helping others, we saw Ilana as an incredible partner and global spokesperson. We think the Company just found it’s missing piece”.

AZUNA is the leading plant based product specializing in odor elimination at the source. Based and manufactured In Buffalo, NY we are proud to be an American made company

ILANA MUHLSTEIN, M.S., R.D.N. is one of the most sought-after weight-loss and nutrition experts in the world. By the time Ilana was 13 years old, she weighed over 200 pounds and struggled with losing weight, emotional eating and diets that didn’t work. While most kids dream of becoming pop stars or famous athletes, Ilana’s early inspirations were the knowledgeable registered dietitians she met every summer at fat camp. She became an RD herself the first chance she got and used everything she learned to lose 100 pounds. Since then, she’s made it her life’s mission to help people live happier and healthier lives.

With a thriving private practice in Beverly Hills, she is an acclaimed public speaker and influencer, published bestselling author, and sits on the prestigious Executive Leadership Team for the American Heart Association. Ilana has been lecturing for the Bruin Health Improvement Program at UCLA since 2013 and is a contributing writer for distinguished publications including The Journal of Obesity, and has been featured in the LA Times, The Washington Post, Reader’s Digest, SHAPE, Health and Women’s Health. With a social media following of over 1.8 million people (@nutritionbabe on TikTok and @ilanamuhlsteinrd on Instagram), Ilana’s life goal is to help as many people as she can. Ilana lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband Noah and two children, Olivia and Julian.

Why TikTok allows for maximizing a company’s reach as well as impressions

With a rise in influencer marketing strategies throughout social media platforms, companies hope to release content which will have a profound impact on a specific targeted audience. TikTok’s rapid-growing popularity has made it a necessary platform for nearly all industries to advertise on as well as create content for, with the beauty industry being no exception.

Industry leaders have utilized the social network not only to reach their intended audience through the app’s individualized “For You Page”, but to maximize on the organic reach the app has to offer. In doing so and being successful, start-up beauty companies are now following suit, which has resulted in the growth of newer companies as well.

One such company who has used TikTok to their advantage is ELF, which markets affordable make-up and beauty products that are of professional quality. Being a large company, ELF already has a very high brand-awareness among consumers interested in beauty products, however they have been incredibly successful in reaching new markets on the app through the use of influencer marketing.

ELF first released their first TikTok video in March of 2020, and since then has accumulated over 290K followers in addition to more than 7.5M likes. Their secret? Releasing content with popular influencers on the app using their products. Some influencers to which they used to help grow their page include Gabby Morrison, Hyram Yarbro, Danny Ochoa, Seth Obrien and so many more.

What really propelled ELF to having one of the most influential marketing strategy however was their campaign #eyeslipsface, which drew attention from some of the biggest celebrities on the app. Their goal was to portray to the younger Generation how their brand looks to include all types of people as well as show the possibilities for new, edgy styles. The campaign was for people to post a video using ELF products and add the hashtag, and it quickly became one of the most effective campaigns that has been conducted on TikTok so far.

While ELF encouraged influencers to partake in the challenge, the hashtag quickly exploded with popularity, and since then has had more than 5 million user-generated videos in addition to 6 billion views. Celebrities and influencers looking to expand on their TikTok presence further joined the movement and released videos of their own, such as Ellen Degeneres, James Charles, Terry Crews, Jessica Alba, Patrick Starr and even the Chicago Bulls Mascot!

The final results of the campaign resulted in more than 1.5 billion impressions as well as the most user-generated videos ever in a TikTok campaign. As a result of such a successful campaign, so many other beauty-product companies have achieved success through similar means on TikTok such as Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez, Wet n Wild Beauty and also many newer emerging brands in the industry.

With such a successful campaign by ELF, it’s no wonder so many other beauty companies are using TikTok to build its brand awareness and organic reach, as the opportunities the app can provide to industry leaders as well as start-up companies is endless.