Brand and Digital Marketing for Beauty Industry Gel Polish Brand 2AM London
2AM London
Boss branding with serious attitude. Gel polish never sounded as fierce!
About
Grafton International discovered a gap in the gel polish market for a low cost, high quality polish available to professional consumers and salons direct.
They wanted to create a brand that had attitude and polishes that people would relate to through the personality of the naming and the shade that they wore. There was no playing it safe and everything needed to be as extra as the position the brand would take amongst competitor brands.
The tone of voice and brand identity would be key to presenting a standout brand against a sea of identical gel polish styles and naming conventions. We came up with the name 2AM to reflect the persona of the customer the brand mirrors; the dirty stop out.
Brand positioning
Developing a personality that created an over mood.
We created a persona for the 2AM audience that they would find relatable and an attitude they could live by. It's for strong, independent women that know exactly what they want and go out and get it.
"About last night… well, how many secrets can you keep? Whether it’s Netflix (and chill) or getting the crown for the biggest dirty stop out going - she’s been hiding some aces up her sleeve and knows sleep is only for the weak. Gotta be up at 7am? Oh well. Get up, Glam up. Done. Lady of the night? Please. Queen of the night. She’s been worshipping the witching hour for years, so simmer down and pucker up. She’s going for an all nighter."
Visual identity
Using a combination of modified typefaces to create the logo delivered the end result that is 100% unique to 2AM. Avenir Next created the '2' for its bold and impactful presence along with two modified typefaces for the 'AM'.
The typography was built from a progressive typeface used for headlines and body copy. When it came to conjunctive words, the more emotive, handwritten script portrayed the non-conventional free spirited vibe of the 2AM persona.
Aviner Next LT Pro | Bold Condensed
Selima
Colour palette
The CMYK colour palette are the richest, deepest, boldest, most saturated colours available. These unapologetically bold and empowered shades take no prisoners, just like the 2AM gel polish itself.
RGB 0 255 255
#00ffff
RGB 255 0 255
#ff00ff
RGB 255 255 0
#ffff00
RGB 0 0 0
#000000
Brand positioning
Setting the brand apart from its competitors.
2AM Gel Polish is about being in control and not compromising on second best. It's about relating to an audience that didn’t want to be seen as ‘basic’ or ‘ordinary.'
It's about empowering people to choose a nail polish not only based on colour, but on the name of the shade to match their personality too. We stepped away from normal naming conventions such as ‘Ruby Red’ and ‘Coralicious’ to bring forth shades that meant something to the wearer. That were an entire mood of their own, a personality or a dirty deed.
Tone of voice
The brand's voice came from a persona designed for the personality and attitude that created 2AM. It's about being crystal clear. That 2AM is about nails and what's hot, what's not. We created the tone of voice around four core brand pillars: hot, fierce, gritty and powerful and that breathed life into one core message - Gel nail polish for sassy, independent women who know what they want and DGAF about the rest. Still eyeing up that other basic-AF gel? Didn’t think so.
concept packaging
Flat geometric shapes.
A trend in 2019 & beyond.
Flat geometric shapes are a core trend for 2019 and we drew on that for our concept for the bottle mockups for 2AM. The shapes reflect the fluid movement of gel polish and highlight each shade in its best light, as well as overlapping a shades name to standout amongst the crowd on a salon’s display.
Copywriting
Killer names and SEO to attract consumers.
Not only did we name 88 gel polishes that played upon their shade, personalities and collection, such as Girl Code, Hot Mess and Widowed, we wrote introductions to each collection for internal and external use.
Grafton outlined their requirements when it came to keywords for their SEO and then we set to work on copywriting - from all 88 gel polishes, collection overviews, product pages, the about us and more, we were able to maintain the tone of voice created for 2AM to seamlessly fold the brand across online and offline spaces.
Bold AF Collection Example
"Be effortlessly cool with a bright gel nail polish that’s taking zero prisoners. These bold and intense gel polish colours are as extra as it’s going to get. It’s time to ooze confidence with a bright gel nail polish that’s as full on as your personality, your vibe and your style. Each gel polish colour in the Bold AF Collection has been chosen to compliment that sassy attitude and now you can rock it 24/7."
We love what you have come up with.
So excited now!
Stephanie Burgin - Head of Brand & Marketing - Grafton International
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