Superdrug’s Head of Customer Service and Experience explains how the high street brand works with influencers, the importance of diversity, and her predictions for the industry…
Photography: Sarah Ellen Photography
“I am Superdrug through and through,” says Gemma Mason.
“I joined in 2004 as a PR assistant and worked my way up from there.”
Gemma, 37, is now Head of Customer Experience & PR at the high street brand, part of which entails helping to look after its influencer activity. Of which there is a lot! We’re sitting in a studio in East London, Gemma has arrived fresh in from Superdrug’s Christmas conference/party in Birmingham, where all the store managers (around 2,000) gather together to run through what’s coming up for the festive season and also have a big party to thank them for all of their efforts.
For someone that has come straight from a Christmas office party, Gemma appears remarkably fresh. She’s looking chic in a white blouse and faux leather trousers, her hair is in a relaxed up-do and she’s wearing a deep red lipstick. She’s warm, open, and clearly has a bit of impostor syndrome about being asked to do a photo shoot.
Having worked at one of the high street’s most well-known brands for 15 years, and now in charge of 40 employees including the customer care team, this is of course utterly unfounded. Indeed, Gemma was one of the pioneers of combining the world of social media and its stars with a brand.
“Even before the bigger social media that we know now, we worked on a campaign with Last Minute around what we were calling ‘Superdrug Insiders’. It was like a blog.
“We put an advert out saying that we wanted people to write about their experiences and set them tasks. For instance, take this phone and take some pictures, show us your festival looks, wear our pink ponchos, go and meet our store managers. It sat on our website and was so powerful – you could see customers commenting on it and checking it every week. I feel now it’s the way that Instagram works.”
Gemma first saw the power of an influencer-faced brand when she attended the launch of Zoella Beauty in 2014.
“Our own-brand team had a relationship with SLG Beauty [a business that, among other things, creates bespoke private label collections] and Zoella. We were invited to the launch [a private, non-advertised, event] and there were fans outside. We were like, ‘this is crazy, this is going to take off’. And from that night we knew that there was something really special around that brand [Zoella Beauty] and the relationship and connection that she [Zoe Sugg] had with her followers.
“We were all aware of how social media was developing, but I don’t think any of us anticipated where that range was going to go. It was an amazing experience.”
Since 2014, there has been an increasing amount of brands collaborating with influencers. James Charles x Morphe, Zoella x Colourpop, Patricia Bright x Makeup Revolution. Is this something that Gemma sees as a recipe for success?
“I think it’s around the influencers and how involved they want to be. There are a lot of brands now that will just put influencers’ names on the products, but where it’s successful is where you can tell that a brand has really worked with the influencers and created a range that you can tell has had their input. I think Makeup Revolution collaborate really well with influencers – and when they bring in the influencers to meet their fans at events it takes it to the next level.”
Events and experiential are more important than ever, says Gemma.
“It’s all about experiences now. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve opened all of our beauty studios up where you can get your eyebrows threaded, or your nails done. We have hairdressers, barbers and ear piercing. It’s all about creating a reason to come into the stores.
“The touchable element is so important too, especially in beauty. I think one of the reasons that we have continued to keep our customers coming back, is because we try to bring as much theatre to our stores as possible. Creating in- store events where are customers can try out the latest product releases and talk to an influencer or expert about them is so important. It truly helps our customers to engage with the brand, ask questions and keeps the product advice authentic.”
Superdrug hosted their own event – Superdrug Presents – at the end of September. Along with showcases from many of the brands they stock, all of which were designed to be as instagrammable as possible, they ran a series of panels (Blogosphere actually hosted one) which included a lot of influencers. In terms of working with influencers, they are always on the lookout for new talent.
“We are always on the lookout. We love somebody that has a cause or stands up for something that they really truly believe in, someone that feels a bit different on Instagram. It’s such a crowded market now. It’s a breath of fresh air when influencers do come along and you’re like ‘wow, you’re so open and honest about this topic and so passionate.
“We had a meeting with Maya Tutton recently, who is doing a campaign about street harassment. Her sister is fourteen, and co-created the campaign alongside her, it’s incredible how Instagram can give people a voice for causes like that. You know, two girls who are trying to change the law on street harassment in the UK.”
When an influencer does have a cause-led social media account, there has been a problem with the assumption that they should be doing everything for free. Michelle Elman, of Scarred not Scared, mentioned this in her interview with Blogosphere in issue 21: “When it comes to being an activist, there’s this idea that you have to struggle through it. But if you’re doing the most important work, why shouldn’t you be financially compensated for it?”.
Gemma agrees: “If it’s a brand asking you for a branded campaign, then you would expect to be paid.”
Using activists in campaigns, in particular to cover the topic of diversity has increased exponentially this year. Indeed, diversity is a topic, it seems, on every brand’s lips.
“Our vision is to be accessible beauty, and accessible means in price and in being able to shop with us no matter what your disability or diversity needs,” Gemma says.
“I think we’re in a good place, compared to other brands on the high street, but we still have a long way to go to get to where I would like us to be. We have taken a lot of steps forward, and I think as a brand we’re very conscious of trying to do the right thing and really listening to our customers.”
Listening and learning – on all topics – is key to Superdrug’s ethos, Gemma says, and one of the mechanisms they have used to educate themselves as a brand is by teaming up with a charity called Modern Muse, which focuses on girls empowering girls.
“We had a group of school girls, aged between 11 and 16, come into Superdrug’s head office, so we could talk to them about the different careers in Retail that they could choose to go into – it’s everything from accounting to social media. We then set them the task of telling us what we could do to engage then with our brand both now, and in the future. We brought them back to the boardroom with our Directors – and they presented their ideas back, which was absolutely phenomenal.
“There were so many influencers that they had put on their strategy. We couldn’t stop taking notes – it’s the future generation.”
In terms of Gemma’s desires for Superdrug’s future work with influencers, it’s about putting smaller influencers in the spotlight.
“I think it would be nice to see some smaller influencers get the recognition that they deserve. There are some really unique, genuine people, who would do amazingly with a bit more help. Hopefully, we can do that.”