Anomaly Gets IP Success With By Lauren Luke Range

With appearances across the UK and US TV networks, a loyal following and newspapers like the New York Times giving her glowing support, Lauren Luke’s hard work has paid off with rapid sales online and through her retail partner Sephora. The NY Times calls her the ‘Everywoman as Beauty Queen’:

A 27-year-old single mother from South Shields near Newcastle in England, Ms. Luke is nothing if not approachable. She is the kind of open-faced, plain-spoken Englishwoman you might expect to encounter at the butcher shop or corner pub. With her plump proportions and pretty if nondescript features, she seems an unlikely candidate to shake up the beauty world. And yet it appears she is doing just that.

…“Her appeal is that she is the Everywoman,” said Ed Burstell, a former vice president at Bergdorf Goodman and the buying director for Liberty of London. “She connects on an emotional level, and her quirky honesty is infectious.”

Her passion, and a tendency to share her emotions — “I’ve just had a good cry,” she might tell viewers — has drawn a following large enough to pose a challenge to the multibillion-dollar cosmetics industry, which has long sold products modeled by the world’s most celebrated beauties, their flawless features showcased in costly ad campaigns.

Supporting her all the way has the creative agency Anomaly and her manager Duncan Bird (who until recently headed up Another Anomaly). As co-owners in the By Lauren Luke brand Anomlay has been involved with the careful development of the By Lauren Luke brand, its promotion through PR and the web plus product development and packaging design. It’s part of the move towards intellectual property that was always part of the plan by the founding partner Carl Johnson. Johnson spoke in March at PSFK Conference 2009 about the work behind the By Lauren Luke brand and even admitted that they hadn’t spent a penny on advertising to support it.

Anomaly
NY Times: An Everywoman as Beauty Queen

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Caveat: Anomaly is a sponsor of PSFK