LANEIGE-Playmade collab: The love affair between cosmetic brands and bubble tea

Korean beauty leader LANEIGE is the latest cosmetic brand to partner with popular Taiwanese Bubble Tea brand Playmade in Singapore to promote its reformulated Water Sleeping Mask EX. As part of the partnership, four new limited edition Playmade drinks will be created: Strawberry Earl Grey Tea, Strawberry Milk Tea, Strawberry Cocoa, Strawberry Shortcake Blend and Strawberry Bobas.

According to a release from the brands, LANEIGE’s Water Sleeping Mask has been one of the brand’s global bestsellers and strawberries are one of nature's “super foods” and consist of 91% water content. As part of the collaboration, LANEIGE and Playmade have also designed a limited-edition cup sleeve and there will also be a Playmade pop-up at selected LANEIGE stores where consumers can win freebies, redeem free drinks and enjoy exclusive deals.

The love affair between cosmetics brands and bubble tea chains is not new. In China last year, Fenty Beauty partnered up with Heytea to promote Fenty Beauty’s blush collection. The duo released limited-edition makeup bags with Heytea drink coupons and Fentu products. Heytea also previously collaborated with the likes of L’Oreal, Clarins and many other brands.

Such collaborations are also not completely new in Southeast Asia. Last year, Tealive partnered with dUCk Cosmetics to launch a limited-edition dUCk boba lipstick collection featuring five different shades. The shades are named after a boba drink - 70% Sugar, Pudding Please, Brown Sugar, Warm Boba and Extra Pearls.

Bryan Loo, founder and CEO of LOOB Holding, told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that the project was in the works for two months and the bubble tea brand wanted to engage lipstick lovers, more specifically the urban Millennials. "That would be the larger purpose in addition to having discounts to lure them to our stores. Emotional engagement is priceless to us," he explained. Loo added that both brands aim to deepen their brand equity in the market and strengthen their position as market leaders of their respective fields.

To drum up hype for the lipstick, both brands have created contest featuring RM1,000 worth of vouchers and preloaded Tealive x dUCk design membership cards. Consumers are required to upload their most creative picture with the Tealive x dUCk standees displayed at the 300 selected Tealive outlets. Meanwhile, Tealive is offering a 10% discount at 50 of its selected outlets throughout the month of March when consumers flash their dUCk boba lipstick.

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