Non-profit organization The British Beauty Council has launched a campaign to encourage consumers to return to hair and beauty salons in the UK, following the impact of the pandemic-related lockdowns on the sector.
While salons were allowed to re-open on April 12, they continue to run at 30% less capacity due to pandemic-related restrictions, resulting in three million fewer appointments than would have been otherwise, claims the organization.
The council’s new poster and social-media campaign, which launches today, aims to bring back what it calls the joy of visiting salons. The British Beauty Council Chief Executive Millie Kendall notes that most of these salon services also require certain skills and cannot always be replicated at home.
The campaign, called “Oh hello beauty,” asks salons, stores and experts to share campaign images both in shops and through social media. Images can be downloaded for free on the British Beauty Council website. Users can print the campaign poster, which features illustrations and captions like “Bring equal brows back” and “Look intentionally messy again,” and place them facing outwards to the street in salon or shop windows.
Additionally, salons are invited to use the social-media assets on Facebook and Instagram, tagging @britishbeautycouncil and #OhHelloBeauty. Also available are GIFs and stickers in Instagram Stories.
The “Oh hello beauty” poster and social-media campaign was developed in partnership with creative agency M&C Saatchi, with support from patrons of the British Beauty Council, Facebook INC, JC Decaux and Zenith Media.
The UK’s £30bn ($42.32bn) beauty industry was one of the sectors most heavily impacted by COVID-19-related measures, claims the council, with hair and beauty salons closed for 140 days of lockdown. It employs 600,000 people of which 80% are women. Full-time equivalent employment numbers are down 21% compared to 2019 as staff hours were cut and employees had to be let go, despite the furlough scheme.
The council says that, at £30bn, the beauty industry contributes more to the UK economy than pubs, which contribute £23bn ($32.44bn) a year.
Some 7,300 salons in the UK have gone out of business since March 2020. The British Beauty Council says it fears more businesses will suffer the same fate unless people start returning for treatments.