Alongside the website relaunch, I also owned Absolute New York’s social media and marketing strategy — building the brand’s audience from the ground up across Instagram and TikTok. This case study covers the audience strategy, content system, and campaign approach behind that growth.
A redesigned store doesn’t generate traffic on its own — it needs an audience pointed at it. I stepped in to run Absolute New York’s social channels, define who the brand was actually talking to, and replace one-off posting with a repeatable content system built around UGC, consistency, and paid amplification.
Set a clear target audience and used it to decide what we posted, and why, instead of posting reactively.
Replaced inconsistent posting with UGC, a real content calendar, and a consistent brand identity across every post.
Ran targeted ad campaigns on top of organic content to extend reach beyond our existing followers.
Before I stepped in, the account leaned almost entirely on flat-lay product photography and text-heavy graphics — the same static format post after post, no video, nothing showing the product actually being used. Auditing the feed and past performance surfaced five issues holding growth back.
Almost every post was a flat-lay product shot with bold text laid over it — no video, no motion, nothing showing the product in use.
Content was made for “everyone,” which in practice meant it wasn’t built for anyone in particular.
Posting was reactive and irregular, so the account never built the posting rhythm that platforms reward.
Visuals, tone, and messaging shifted post to post, so the feed never read as one cohesive brand.
Every post tried to sell, which crowded out the brand-building content that actually earns an audience.
I ran a competitor analysis on L.A. Girl, e.l.f., and NYX. All three led with reels and UGC: real people applying the product on camera, close ups of texture and pigment, real life use instead of flat lay shots. It confirmed that video, UGC, consistency, and paid ads were the baseline at established brands, not extras.
I started by defining the actual target audience — who they were, what they cared about, and what would make them stop scrolling — instead of designing content for a generic beauty shopper. That definition became the filter for every content and campaign decision that followed.
The bigger decision was strategic: brand awareness vs. sales revenue as the primary goal. I made the case for prioritizing awareness first — a larger, more engaged audience compounds into revenue over time, while content that tries to sell before anyone knows or trusts the brand just gets scrolled past. Sales-focused content stayed in the mix, but awareness set the direction.
We optimized for a bigger, more engaged audience first — trusting that revenue would follow reach, not the other way around.
With the audience defined, I built the system that would consistently reach them — UGC for trust, consistency for recognition, and paid media for reach.
I sourced and collaborated with real customers and creators to feature genuine product use instead of polished studio shots exclusively. UGC read as more trustworthy, gave us a steady stream of content, and let the audience see themselves in the brand.
I built a content calendar and a set of recurring content pillars, paired with a consistent visual identity — color, type, tone — so the feed read as one brand instead of a series of disconnected posts. Consistency, not virality, is what built the posting rhythm platforms reward.
Layered targeted ad campaigns on top of the organic content to reach beyond our existing followers and put our highest-performing content in front of the audience we’d defined. Every launch started with a full cross-channel plan — teaser, banner, email, social, SMS — so every touchpoint stayed in order and pointed at the same audience.
UGC outperformed everything else in the feed, so scaling it was the obvious move — but outreach, shipments, and content collection were all manual and couldn’t keep up. I brought in GRIN to run creator outreach, seeding, and content collection in one place, letting the affiliate program above run at volume.
Once reels and UGC became the default, reach followed: 1.3M from reels versus 7.3K from static posts, with 99% of that reach coming from non-followers — new people discovering the account through the framework above, not just existing followers seeing more of it.
“We stopped broadcasting to existing followers and started reaching new ones. Format was the lever — video reached 178x what static did, and 99% of that reach was people who’d never heard of us.”
I defined the audience, built the content and campaign system, produced and sourced the creative, and ran paid media — then used performance data to keep tuning the strategy.
Three of the best performing posts on the account, each a different content type, showing what actually drove the engagement.
Designed and built by Hanjee Na.