• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, September 17, 2024

Maybelline’s Instant Eraser Concealer has been around for years, lurking in makeup bags everywhere. To introduce it to a younger audience, the company is running a new ad campaign, with Naomi Campbell, Gigi Hadid, and Ru Paul all dishing about “her,” the “icon,” the one who “runs this town.”

The faux trailer is a new approach for the product, first launched in 2011. Previous campaigns leaned heavily on its benefits.

“Instant Eraser is one of the most important innovations in Maybelline history, and consumers have loved it for years,” says Trisha Ayyagari, Maybelline New York’s global brand president. “It’s emblematic of our trailblazing makeup innovation. We wanted to celebrate it with a fun twist, putting the story in the hands of true generational trailblazers.”

The trio also build a bit of a generational bridgee: Ru Paul is 60-something, Campbell in her 50s, and Hadid in her 20s.

Brands are “always in the race of fighting for attention,” Ayyagari tells Marketing Daily, “when what we should be doing is creating attention. That’s what we wanted to do with this campaign.”

Gotham created the ads, which broke during the Emmy Awards. The campaign also includes out-of-home wild postings, billboards and murals around New York.

It’s the latest example of ways Maybelline, founded in 1915 and owned by L’Oréal, markets itself as both a heritage brand and a category innovator.

Maintaining that balance is always on Ayyagari’s mind, especially as Maybelline fends off an onslaught of direct-to-consumer newcomers.

“How do we continue to stay at the forefront of innovation, so we'll always be relevant, and at the same time, give people a sense of nostalgia that taps into our heritage,” she says. “It's kind of a marriage of those two things.”

For example, it recently remade its classic “Maybe It’s Maybelline” jingle, launching the new sound on TikTok. The three-word classic claims an astonishing 84% brand recall.

And it’s hard not to brag about the brand’s heritage: the company invented mascara, the longest-wearing lipstick and foundation.

That sense of nostalgia appeals to those who have worn the brand for years and those who remember their mom wearing it.

She says the jingle represents “the self-confidence and self-expression in the brand’s DNA.”