Case Study
SEPHORiA Eventique Designs Sephora’s ‘Virtual House of Beauty’ Welcome to It’s 10 a.m. on Sept. 18, 2021. You’re one of the
country’s top beauty influencers, and you’re sitting in front of your computer with swag, makeup, and other beauty products from Sephora covering your desk. They arrived on your doorstep just in time for this moment. You pull up Sephoria2021.com and — holding your breath — enter your login. Then, it happens: The virtual doors open, and you “step” inside a massive digital house. The house is a maze, and every room brings a new experience. In the home theater, you’re immersed in a master class streamed live by a beauty brand in Los Angeles. It’s followed by a panel on mental health in the beauty space sponsored by Selena Gomez’s brand Rare Beauty. In the loft, you follow a portal to a virtual fitting room where you can try on ThirdLove bras. In the family room, backyard, and sunroom, celebrities like Jonathan Van Ness, Helen Phillips, and Patrick Ta appear to share makeup tips and tell you about clean beauty. You spin a fortune wheel to win swag and snap selfies in virtual photo booths. It’s the most fun you’ve ever had without leaving your office chair. You’ve just journeyed through SEPHORiA: Virtual House of Beauty, a one-of-a-kind virtual event created by Eventique for the beauty brand Sephora. According to Amelia Friedman, Eventique’s project manager of the SEPHORiA team, planning and executing the event took nine months. The bidding process began in January 2021. After winning, Friedman’s team embarked on a whirlwind of brainstorming, designing, planning, and networking to make their vision for SEPHORiA a reality by Sept. 18. Along the way, they ran into several challenges that demanded creative and collaborative gymnastics. Chief among them was taking a beloved event that had been hands on and in person and translating it to a virtual space.
“It was a very difficult concept to wrap our heads around, but our incredible creative director really took charge and took the lead on it,” she says. Friedman adds that although the team couldn’t fully replicate the in-person experience of collecting free samples at dozens of booths, shaking hands with other media influencers, and building out gorgeous selfie photo-ops, they could still ensure Sephora met their chief goals: educating attendees about new brands, generating influencer buzz, and highlighting the ethics of clean beauty, diversity, and inclusion. “We really changed the entire event [when we took it virtual]. Coming up with how to do that, make it a positive experience, and stay true to the brand was a challenge.” Once Friedman’s team developed a blueprint, they faced an execution hurdle: creating a registration page that would both give SEPHORiA’s attendees flexible ticket options and stay within the legal guidelines of every U.S. state. Eventique wanted guests to choose between snagging a free ticket or adding one of two $40 gift box options. This flexibility was a serious challenge to the event’s registration software, but Friedman’s team made it happen. The beautifully branded Experience Kits were delivered directly to each influencer’s doorstep, stuffed with swag, samples, and full-sized products from Sephora partners like FENTY BEAUTY by Rihanna.
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