Pop star Katy Perry has 76 million Twitter followers, making her the most followed person on the social network.
Coty Inc., the manufacturer of Perry's fragrance line, decided to capitalize on her massive Twitter base and on June 22, released her third perfume, Mad Potion, exclusively on Twitter.
The company created a pop-up shop Twitter account @katyperrypopup that would allow her fans to purchase the fragrance through Twitter's e-commerce function. Fans need to click on the "buy" button, enter their credit card information, and pay $29.99 to have the perfume shipped to their homes.
"We wanted to launch her new fragrance in a different way," says Emily Bond, Vice President, Global Marketing, Celebrity Brands & New Business Development, Coty Inc. "Katy's fans have a young demographic, and we wanted to target consumers live online."
Since the June 22 launch date, the hashtag #MadPotion was trending twice in one month, while it was trending, over 12 tweets per second were shared containing #MadPotion.
Coty is the first beauty brand to sell directly to consumers on Twitter. "This is the first marriage [for a beauty company] between social media and e-commerce," says Bond. (British retailer Burberry was the first brand to test Twitter's e-commerce function last September when it released a limited edition nail polish on the platform.)
While it's too early to release sales figures, Bond says that the campaign has been an unequivocal success. "Katy has the power of social media behind her. So far, a total of 661 million impression have been recorded since the launch date."
Once the inventory of Mad Potion for sale on Twitter dries up, Bond says that the perfume will be next be sold online and then in retail stores around the globe.