Case Studies, Franchise Development

iluma Agency Executes Successful Marketing Test for Aveda’s Diverse Multi-Unit Business Growth Needs

The client

Aveda, owned by Estee Lauder, is a leading botanical hair and skin brand with more than 9,000 salons and spas worldwide.

A distinct challenge and opportunity

Aveda faced increasing pressure from salon and spa owners to provide greater marketing support and help drive new business to their individual business locations. With strict brand identity standards to uphold, it was crucial for Aveda to gain a thorough understanding of proposed marketing solutions prior to rolling out any new strategy on a large scale.

Aveda business units vary in focus: some cater only to salon or spa services, while others include both. Thousands of individual business owners bring their own visions and demands to the table. All of them in different markets and at different stages in their business growth, their needs ranged from getting as many people in the door as possible to attracting only a very specific type and quality of client.

An innovative, data-driven solution

iluma Agency developed a four-phase marketing test for Aveda. Each phase included a Facebook advertising campaign, display advertising campaign, and pay-per-click ad campaign rolled out to a small group of salons and spas. These campaigns included full integration with a lead-capture landing page, call tracking, email follow-up automation, and a referral page. All marketing strategies and creative assets were presented to Aveda prior to execution to ensure their understanding and approval.

Within each campaign, iluma performed A/B testing to determine which creative images, videos, messaging, promotional offer, and call to action drove the best results—while also thoroughly tracking demographics and platform-specific performance data to optimize targeting.

In addition to quantitative data collected from campaign performance, iluma maintained a close working relationship and communication with each of the salons and spas in the test to gather insight about changes in business, conversions of leads into long-term repeat clients, and the business owners’ level of satisfaction with their results.

Each subsequent test phase was developed based on the results of the previous phase, with additional layers of testing added. Goals were updated to reflect the diverse and complex needs of Aveda’s business owners.

In addition to thorough internal tracking, all results and findings were shared and discussed with Aveda throughout the duration of the marketing test.

The results

iluma Agency developed successful digital marketing campaigns that yielded unprecedented business growth for Aveda salon and spa owners.

Phase 1 alone generated more than 6.5 million impressions and 30,000 clicks, with a click-through rate of 6.2%.

At multiple points in each testing phase, business owners requested to pause the campaign so they could handle the overwhelming amount of leads and new salon guests.