CASE STUDY: M·A·C looking good with AR and AI
Makeup brand M·A·C has seen a 200% boost in customer engagement with digital tools including AR and AI
M·A·C (Make-up Art Cosmetics), a leading brand of professional cosmetics, is part of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. M·A·C is sold in over 130 countries around the world. It remains committed to developing new categories, products and over 50 collections each year, all of which continue to serve the demand of consumers and professional makeup artists alike.
When Sonia Anand, executive director, global digital retail innovator at M·A·C, came to the company five years ago, one of her first initiatives was to dive into the world of beauty tech to find the best provider of artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) for virtual try-on experiences.
Analysis
M·A·C Cosmetics chose Perfect Corp. and the Perfect Corp. AR platform for its combining of powerful AI with industry-leading AR to provide stunningly lifelike results.
“Part of my job was to make sure we were choosing the best provider of AI and AR,” Anand says. “We did our due diligence and found Perfect Corp provides the most robust and fullest suite of products that really caters to our brand portfolio.”
Part of the analysis involved finding an AI/AR provider who could provide lifelike experiences across the spectrum of M·A·C Cosmetics users.
“Our founding mantra at M·A·C is: All Ages, All Races, All Genders,” Anand says. “This means we needed AI and AR that could seamlessly adapt to different skin tones and face shapes. We require the same sense of inclusivity with our technology that we embrace in our products. Perfect Corp. is able to do this.”
With makeup artists part of the DNA of M·A·C Cosmetics, the company wanted to ensure its AI/AR provider met their demanding needs.
“In addition to providing an inclusive tool, Perfect Corp. makes sure that we are providing the easiest editing tools for our artists to review these products and to sign off on all the colors and all of the shade matching,” Anand says. “That is critically important to us. We wouldn't publish a tool where we weren't getting that accuracy level. Their technological excellence made Perfect Corp. and YouCam a great match for M·A·C.”
Augmented reality
The company has deployed Perfect Corp. technology to meet its needs in a number of ways, including YouCam Virtual Try-On; Onsite Virtual Try-On; Virtual Shade Finder and VTO Full Looks.
M·A·C Cosmetics has enhanced the customer experience by offering a number of virtual “full looks” including Bridal … Date Night … Zoom Party … Holiday Glam, and a number of others. It also gives customers the option of “dialing up or down” for a look to try different versions of each.
Benefits
M·A·C Cosmetics has enjoyed a number of benefits since deploying the Perfect Corp. shade-matching and virtual try-on technology, including creating an immersive VTO environment for a frictionless customer experience; providing “Connected Journeys” through omnichannel VTO; and 200% increase in customer engagement in the first month and “strong conversion”.
The AI-powered augmented reality of Perfect Corp. technology, coupled with the precision expertise of M·A·C makeup artists, has created exactly the beauty tech platform that M·A·C had sought.
“Our goal in deploying these new AI and AR technologies and experiences has always been focused on removing any friction for the consumer,” Anand says. “Traditionally, the downside of online purchases has been uncertainty about how a product would actually look. With our AI/AR-powered virtual try-on, that uncertainty is gone. The consumer can see exactly how each of our products will look on them, which has really opened the door for increased engagement and conversion.”
The cosmetics firm are also working closely with Perfect Corp. to develop new tools and capabilities.
M·A·C Cosmetics has found Perfect Corp. to be a great partner to work with because both companies are focused on providing excellence, while continually searching for new ways to serve their customers.
