EXCLUSIVE: Gisou Tops EMV Ranking for Hair and Skin Care in the U.S. and EU
PARIS — Indie beauty brand Gisou is accelerating its momentum in the social space. In April, it ranked number one among all hair care and skin care brands in the U.S. in Europe combined for earned media value, according to CreatorIQ.
Gisou was the sole EU-based indie brand on the U.S.-plus-EU leaderboard. Last year, it had placed as the fastest-growing hair care brand among creators.
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“It’s just been this amazing crescendo,” Sarah Watt, chief executive officer of Gisou, told WWD.
The premium honey-based brand is Netherlands-based and cofounded in 2015 by beauty influencer Negin Mirsalehi, hailing from an Iranian beekeeping family and whose mother is a hairdresser, and her partner, Maurits Stibbe.
In CreatorIQ’s April 2024 EMV ranking, Gisou’s on-year EMV growth in the U.S. reached 126 percent year-on-year to $18.4 million, while in the EU, it hit $10.7 million, up 204 percent. Gisou’s EMV globally equaled $29.1 million in the period.
In that ranking, Gisou led K18, Olaplex, Redken, Kérastase, Summer Fridays, Rhode, Sol de Janeiro and Glow Recipe.
Gisou’s business has been spurred by its creativity, fanbase, well-received products and Sephora partnership.
“Gisou has seen absolutely phenomenal growth in EMV over the last 24 months growing 160 percent year-on-year in the last 12 months and 96 percent year-on-year in the prior 12 months,” said Conor Begley, chief strategy officer of CreatorIQ, in a statement.
“This makes them the number-one fastest-growing hair care brand we track,” he continued. “Additionally, if you were to look at April, they would be the number-one brand across all brands in hair care and skin care in the U.S. and Europe — a truly phenomenal feat by the team.”
Gisou’s launch of tinted, fruit-scented Honey Infused Lip Oils in April generated more than $11.8 million in EMV during its first 11 days, catapulting it to the top-selling spot across Sephora.com in North America in the first few hours.
“That was powered by the incredible campaign that we pulled together and the burst of talkability that we saw across social,” said Watt. “A massive part of it is product, of course.”
The brand and retailer together teased, revealed and launched the line extension, luring more than 18 million views and 140,000 new followers. Tens of thousands signed up for the pre-launch waitlist to shop on gisou.com and sephora.com.
“Gisou and Sephora’s partnership to create elevated client excitement ahead of launch is a fantastic example of the power of a brand’s creativity paired with Sephora’s reach to amplify their voice,” said Priya Venkatesh, Sephora’s global chief merchandising officer, in the statement.
Mirsalehi’s Gisou’s “girl fridge” post went viral, boasting more than 14 million views and 700,000 likes. A bespoke Gisou x Create Fridge, chockablock with Gisou bestsellers and fruit, was delivered to select creator fans. As a result, the brand delivered $2.5 million EMV.
“The brand momentum, in general, is just really snowballing,” said Watt.
Gisou is also delivering in terms of sales, clocking a triple-digit compound annual growth rate over the past eight years.
On social, the brand’s secret sauce includes a healthy mix of owned and earned media.
“At Gisou, we take our most out-of-the-box ideas and bring them to life, which inspires our community of creators to recreate the content with their own twist,” said Mirsalehi, in the statement. “In turn, our community inspires us and fuels every decision we make, even down to our product formulations. It’s a constant wheel of content, fueled by creativity between our brand and our community.”
“Community is absolutely at the heart of Gisou,” underlined Watt.
Mirsalehi added: “Becoming the number-one luxury hair care brand on TikTok [with 940,000 followers] and inspiring 1.5 million followers on Instagram is a dream come true — one that could not have been accomplished without Gisou’s intangible creativity, irresistible authentic products that really work and the passion of our community.” Mirsalehi has 7.2 million followers on Instagram alone.
Gisou’s overall topseller is Infused Hair Oil, which includes proprietary Mirsalehi honey, used as a powerful moisturizer, and Bee Garden Oils from the Mirsalehi family bee garden.
In April 2022, Gisou closed a series B funding round led by Eurazeo, which took a minority stake in the company.
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