The announcement came at this week’s annual Hispanicize Event, which celebrates professionals and celebrities for their remarkable, cross-genre achievements an in media, marketing, entertainment and beyond.
How-to
DulceCandy produces her own make-up video tutorials and has amassed over 2.1m YouTube subscribers and 1m Instagram followers. Not surprisingly, prominent brands have taken note of her influence in the beauty space.
She has partnered with leading companies, including Cover Girl, L’Oreal and Olay to reach millennials. And, this week in Miami, DulceCandy was awarded the Hispanicize 2015 Latinovator Award for her work.
Ambassador and role model
Brands looking to influence digitally savvy consumers do well to collaborate with self-made industry experts that have established substantial, loyal fan bases. Through such brand-ambassador partnerships, the companies also benefit from the social capital the individuals have accrued.
DulceCandy resonates culturally as an entrepreneurial Latina role model: "It is such an honor to receive this award from Hispanicize. Being mentioned alongside the likes of Soledad O'Brien, Rita Moreno and Sheila E. is a dream come true," said Dulce. “I want my career and story to continue to empower women and girls around the world to go for their dreams, anything is possible."
Digital content matters
Consumers explore beauty products online before making purchases. In the US 33% of shoppers do online research before they buy, according to L2ThinkTank. And, overseas that percentage is even higher. In the UK 60% of consumers go online to research beauty products before they make purchases, the digital intelligence service found.
That online research includes social media like YouTube videos, where consumers can see products demonstrated, rated, and used in creative, trendy ways.
Consumers appreciate the non-transactional space that social media can offer. This makes social platforms and feedback forums valuable: “These groups differ fundamentally from the e-commerce sites or digital shops, which are totally functional, existing only to sell products,” explained a Diagonal Reports piece on online beauty communities.
Multimedia
How-to cosmetics videos and beauty bloggers are quite relevant beyond the social media space. Numerous major women’s magazines feature beauty blogger and vbloggers as experts and share their tips, posts and content with readers. And like DulceCandy, the online experts are teaming up with brands online and in print to reach digitally engaged consumers.