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Lush went off the grid on November 26, deactivating its accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok and stepping away from one of the most prominent arteries connecting brands and consumers. Coming off Facebook and Instagram is expected to result in an estimated £10 million ($13.3 million) hit to sales.
The U.K.-based cosmetics company said it was quitting out of concerns for its consumers’ mental health, referencing the recently reported revelations that Facebook has research to prove the harm it brings its users, especially teen girls, but does little to mitigate the impact.
“If the platform is damaging mental health, so by putting your content into it, you’re fueling the problem,” Jack Constantine, chief digital officer and product inventor at Lush, told Adweek, noting that the findings are particularly at odds with the bath bomb purveyor’s mission of helping people relax and attend to their well-being.
Lush isn’t the only brand that sees the harm of Facebook. Multiple sources say plenty of marketers are interested in reducing their reliance on—or even altogether quitting—the platform.
But quitting Facebook is easier said than done, with the platform anticipated to eat up nearly 24% of digital ad revenue in 2021, according to eMarketer. Indeed, Lush originally tried to leave the platforms in 2019 but returned in 2020 as the pandemic made it harder for the brand to connect with consumers. The company’s new strategy provides a case study for other companies looking to change their relationships with the platforms.
Making the exit possible
Unlike most brands, Lush doesn’t use paid advertising on social platforms. Instead, it relies on its own brand channels, partnerships and public relations.
In its own direct marketing efforts, including online forums and a Lush Times newspaper, Constantine said the brand will always have more control. “We own the platform there,” he said. “Social media [contrastingly] are not actually safe environments.”
Of course, Lush’s existing non-platform marketing infrastructure made the company’s exit possible. “Now Lush can leave Facebook properties without taking a hit their business,” said Nandini Jammi, co-founder of ad-tech watchdog Check May Ads. “You don’t want to be fully reliant on any single platform for your business because you don’t own those platforms.”
Aside from brand safety risks, companies that rely heavily on platforms can get lazy in their marketing strategies, both Constantine and Jammi said, choosing reach over loyal consumers.
“Taking away those four main channels gives us a chance to think more outside the box,” Constantine said. While Facebook and Instagram are the subjects of recent headlines over harms related to mental health, Lush decided to quit Snapchat and Tiktok too given what it sees as the addictive quality of both platforms, Constantine said.
Taking away those four main channels gives us a chance to think more outside the box
Jack Constantine, chief digital officer and product inventor at Lush
Though Lush was less reliant on social than other brands, the exit will still impact the company’s bottom line. On Facebook and Instagram, approximately between 1.5% and 3% of user interactions with brands—which could be a like, comment or share—results in an online order, according to customer management platform Sprinklr figures provided by the company. Lush’s estimate of losing $13.3 million in sales is based on its 66.7 million interactions over 2020. However, that revenue number could be higher since it doesn’t account for all the various staff and stores also using the platform.
While that’s nothing to sniff at, it’s manageable since Lush generates around £800 million ($1.06 billion) in annual revenue, Constantine said.
People will follow
Lush isn’t giving up platforms entirely, instead now focusing on Twitter, Reddit, YouTube and Pinterest.
Constantine said the company has already seen success on some of these platforms. For example, he said there is an active Lush subreddit and the genesis for an Ariana Grande Bath Bomb came from Twitter. Lush will continually evaluate the risks of these platforms, and pull back when one runs afoul of its mission. It will still work with creators who make content on platforms where it will no longer post, including Facebook.
Even after adopting alternative strategies, most companies can’t afford to give up a platform with as wide a reach as Facebook. “For small businesses, it’s not going to be possible to leave Facebook,” Jammi said. “It’s not going to create any material change.”
While Lush may currently be an outlier for permanently signing off Facebook, Obele Brown-West, executive vice president of media at performance marketing agency Tinuiti, said their decision can have ripple effects. In 2011, Patagonia opted out of Black Friday in protest of the shopping bonanza’s consumerism and environmental impact. This year, even Walmart and Target were open for fewer hours during the Thanksgiving period.
“Patagonia didn’t go anywhere,” she said. “It takes an innovator to start something like this, but other people are going to follow.”