Whenever a touch-up was required for the 2016 Miss Universe Australia entrants, Bodyography was there. The professional makeup brand has been involved with this year’s competition from the initial stages right to the final, where Caris Tiivel from Western Australia was crowned the winner – and announced as the face and brand ambassador of Bodyography and Sumita Australia. Professional Beauty talks to Rob Tamburro, Director of Bodyography, about the cosmetics brands’ role in this globally-viewed event.
How was Bodyography involved in 2016 Miss Universe?
Bodyography was involved throughout the whole journey of Miss Universe Australia. From registration to state finals ending with the national final. The campaign commenced with Miss Westcoast in WA which ultimately become the state final for WA. This was at the same time that Pink Tank and Troy Barbagallo had taken over the rights to Miss Universe Australia. Bodyography provided gift prizes to all the entrants as well makeup teams at all the State and National finals. We appointed Alarna Bell from Kolorz N Klawz as our creative director for the project who selected the team who would work on the Miss Universe girls. Part of this commitment also meant that Alarna travelled to Bali with the girls and incorporated beauty training and application for the national finalists.
What did the Bodyography team, headed by Alarna Bell from Kolorz N Klawz, do for the event?
The team was basically on hand throughout the entire campaign providing the makeup for all the events leading up to the national final. This meant searching for our best artists as it could be the difference between a win and runner up for one of these girls. A team of 15 artists made up the team that worked on the girls back stage
It must have been a huge undertaking. How long did the event go for? And what was involved?
It truly was, however we had the best person on the job in Alarna. Her professionalism and commitment to the girls and event organisers was amazing. Alarna really made our involvement a lot less stressful. She created an amazing makeup team that just got the job done, great artists but also professional and, most of all, on time. This meant a lot of travelling for Alarna also as she attended each state final as well as Bali, where a lot of the filming for the up and coming documentary was shot.
What has been the exposure for Bodyography and Sumita?
The exposure has been amazing with both brands receiving national exposure. As well as your traditional print and TV media, we also basically have 72 girls that were working for us on a social media level. This was aided by the implantation of MyMiss TV and also the MYmiss app on iTunes. The social media coverage we received and continue to receive has been amazing and people have watched these girls throughout their whole journey. Exposure will continue over the next few months as Caris prepares for the World Final in which I believe Caris is a top 5 contender who can stand side-by-side with the likes of Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil. This will be held in January 2017 in the Philippines so no doubt you will see much more of Caris between now and then in the media. We will also be working on our own marketing campaign with Caris in the coming months as she becomes our brand ambassador for both Bodyography and Sumita.
What attributes do you think won Caris Tiivel her title?
Of course first up we have to say her beauty as this is overall a beauty pageant, (as much as we don’t like to use the pageant word) . But most definitely her attributes includes just a beautiful warm personality and her striking resemblance to a young Miranda Kerr. There is still a lot of work and training between now and January but we believe she has all the qualities to represent Australia in the best possible way and make us proud.
What will be Caris’s responsibilities be in her role as the face and brand ambassador of Bodyography and Sumita Australia?
In the coming months we will be putting together our new add campaign with Caris, which will include posters for our brand as well as a TVC. It’s exciting times as the brands have found some new rapid growth in 2016 with the quality of stockists becoming larger as we welcome some new franchises on board. We plan to utilise Caris for special launches and events as well the opening of our own concept stores.