Propaganda has delivered the strategic positioning and creative direction for The KB Pen, a luxury beauty tool pioneering a new category in cosmetics.
Created by Karen Betts, a pioneer in professional beauty with three decades of industry expertise, The KB Pen builds on her track record of category-defining innovations, including HD Brows and LVL. It is the world’s first luxury customisable beauty tool for eyes, lips and brows. Combining an heirloom-quality case with interchangeable, refillable cartridges and a curated range of wearable shades, The KB Pen brings precision and luxury to the everyday beauty routine.
Karen Betts sought out Propaganda directly, having worked with the agency in the past on Nouveau Lashes campaigns. With the goal of redefining what luxury beauty looks like, the challenge was to move away from traditional perceptions of indulgence as something for special occasions and establish the product as a considered, everyday essential.
The resulting proposition, ‘Beauty Without Occasion’, encourages consumers to stop saving life’s pleasures for special moments and instead make them part of everyday life. Bringing this idea to life is JFUI (‘Just F**king Use It’), the brand’s irreverent rallying cry that cuts through the stuffy conventions of luxury beauty with a bold, unapologetic point of view.
Working collaboratively with the Karen Betts team, Slice Social Media Consultancy and the brand’s Social Strategist Ines O’Gorman, Propaganda helped to shape the brand positioning, creative direction, visual identity and tone of voice for Karen Betts. Additionally, Propaganda led the concept, script and art direction for the Karen Betts brand film, working closely with director Chloe Victoria Hughes, Chief Productions and Karen Betts’ Creative Director Jess Williams.
Karen Betts said: “Having worked with the Propaganda team before, I knew they had the expertise and strategic thinking to help me bring this brand to life. Propaganda understood our ambition from the start and challenged us to think differently about what luxury beauty could mean. The result is a brand that feels completely unique to us, and ‘Beauty Without Occasion’ captures exactly what we want The KB Pen to stand for.”
Laura Kynaston, Managing Director at Propaganda said: “Developing the brand alongside Karen Betts was a brilliant challenge, particularly for a product that brings something genuinely different to the market. Luxury beauty is so often positioned as a rare treat or something saved for best, but The KB Pen was designed to be used and enjoyed every day. We needed to create a brand that reflected that difference and gave The KB Pen a distinctive, ownable position in the market”.
Propaganda will continue to support Karen Betts with brand and creative strategy as The KB Pen launches and beyond.
