Brands
Brand management through video marketing campaign for Woohoo
BENGALURU: In today’s day and age, the video is the new fuel that brands are filling up on as they gear up for the race for engagement on social media. As video consumption across multiple platforms is on the rise, videos become the natural choice for marketers seeking to position their brands and capture the attention of consumers. An often quoted statistic is that viewer engagement has to happen within thefirst 10 seconds of watching a video.
Woohoo- go-to-platform for gifting by Qwikcilver solutions, recently engaged with consumers to ask them: ‘What would really make them happy?’ in the context of gifting. This was done through a recently launched video https://youtu.be/-C5Oszqz2fA
The campaign talks about how ‘We think we know everything about our loved ones. But do we really?
A selection of different pairs of people that include siblings, mother-daughter and married couples were put through a small test. As part of the test, they were asked a simple question on what they would gift their loved ones to make themtruly happy. An interesting observation that was noted at the end of the video was that the majority of people did not know what their loved ones actually wanted as a gift.
Woohoo presented the solution to this problem in the form of a small gift box in front of the participants, which comprised a mobile phone with the Woohoo app downloaded and a Woohoo gift card. This is the simplest and the most powerful way to gift someone we love, the freedom of choice from a world of brands, services and experiences.
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
