QVC is bringing Oscars glamour to its customer base at home.
The home shopping network, along with its beauty-centric Beauty iQ network, will on Tuesday night air back-to-back broadcasts live from Los Angeles. The broadcasts, featuring QVC hosts, vendors and influencers are themed around beauty trends from the Academy Awards and how to achieve a red carpet beauty look. Nevermind the fact that the QVC audience is tuning in from the couch — the network and its vendors maintain that connecting its audience with an well-known cultural event will be a sales driver for QVC and Beauty iQ.
“Our customer is a beauty junkie who loves to see things that are happening in [pop culture],” said Rachel Ungaro, vice president of buying for apparel, accessories, beauty and jewelry at QVC. “She wants to be in the moment in the place where it happened.”
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To that end, the broadcasts will air live — the QVC spot will air at 10 p.m. EST for two hours and the Beauty iQ spot will directly follow — from the rooftop of E.P. & L.P., a restaurant and event space in Los Angeles. Vendors who are selling on the broadcasts represent mostly makeup brands, but there is hair and skin care as well — makeup artists Kristofer Buckle, Fiona Stiles and Mally Roncal of their self-named lines, dermatologist Dr. Dennis Gross, Keri Parker of Kopari Beauty, Jessica Foust of Bare Minerals, Sarah Potempa of Beachwaver and Poppy King of Lipstick Queen are all scheduled to make appearances.
Ungaro noted that the vendors selected for the broadcast represent the scope of the Beauty iQ offerings, which the network is hoping consumers will realize after tuning in. “This is really about driving awareness for Beauty iQ,” Ungaro said. “We’re driving home the fact that we have this prestige beauty business — we are prestige beauty.” Ungaro noted that the network tapped vendors who represent both “tried and true” QVC brands such as Mally Beauty, along with recent launches that represent newness, such as Fiona Stiles and Kristofer Buckle.
Vendors will be speaking on-air about how to obtain a red carpet beauty look with products sold on QVC. “If she saw something on a star that she liked, she doesn’t have to figure it out how to re-create the look herself,” Ungaro said. “We’ll show her how to get it.”
It’s not that QVC and Beauty iQ customers are looking for tips on how to prepare for their own red carpet events — it’s more about bringing them into the cultural conversation and helping them feel included, said Dr. Dennis Gross.
“People who watch QVC — they feel like the hosts are members of their family, that they are members of a club. This is how they have fun,” Gross said. “[With a live event] it gives something for people to connect to, to relate to — it makes them a part of something bigger than themselves. It’s another reason to shop.”
For Gross, the glamour of the red carpet is a way for him to connect with his QVC and Beauty iQ customers about their own skin-care goals. “For the same reason the Academy Awards are really fun and highly viewed, here is a way to connect it to what you actually do at home in regards to working on your skin, making it look beautiful and more radiant,” said Gross, who will be talking about his C+ Collagen Brighten & Firm Vitamin C Serum and facial steamer device on the Beauty iQ hour. “They’re not going to look like Emma Stone, but they certainly know she does [a skin-care regimen], and that’s the point of it.”
There is also an influencer and social media component — Nicolette Mason, Liz Cherkasova, Geri Hirsch and Eman Raouf are the influencers slated to appear at various points during the live broadcasts. Influencers will also be attending the pre-broadcast cocktail party, from where they will post on social media about the event using the hashtag #QtheBeauty.
Ungaro noted that live event and on-location broadcasts have been successful for QVC in the past, ticking off ED on Air live from Ellen Degeneres’ studios, and Scott Living, which is filmed from the Scott brothers’ actual home. She also said a successful red carpet broadcast could lead to more event-focused beauty coverage, such as during New York Fashion Week.
Ungaro declined to talk sales projections, but WWD reported in October that Beauty iQ alone has the potential to reach 40 million homes via its cable partnerships.