Nutritional Outlook's 2017 Best of the Industry, Ingredient Supplier/Service Provider: Lycored

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Much has been said about the ever-growing “beauty-from-within” supplements market. Still, nutricosmetics just aren’t as popular in the United States as they are in many Asian and European countries. While the need to raise consumer awareness about the benefits of beauty-from-within supplements is clear, many companies haven’t engaged in this sort of education.

Lycopene ingredients specialist Lycored (Be’er Sheva, Israel), meanwhile, has been making serious inroads to increasing consumer awareness about the beauty-from-within category. Lycored’s “Letters of Love” tour, #rethinkbeautiful social media campaign, and consumer survey and education efforts offer bold and innovative marketing strategies that don’t seek solely to promote its skin-health carotenoid ingredient, Lycoderm, but rather to emphasize that beauty and wellness are inextricably linked.

“The global skincare market is in the midst of a revolution,” Zev Ziegler, head of global brand and marketing, health, Lycored, says. “There has been a major shift from appearance to health, and from outside to inside. Consumers…understand that beauty comes from within, and that healthy skin is about what you put into your body.”

He adds that Lycored’s consumer research reveals “high awareness” about the role proper nutrition plays in skincare, with consumers under 35, in particular, “increasingly recognizing the benefits of supplementation for healthy, resilient skin.”

In February, Lycored launched its Letters of Love tour at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT. The mission was simple: to showcase its Lycoderm nutricosmetic ingredient while also highlighting the importance of beauty from within-both body and soul. Ziegler says Lycored wanted “to inspire consumers to love themselves the way they love others, and to show them that beauty blossoms everywhere they look-even within themselves.”

At the festival, attendees were invited to compose love letters to themselves. Lycored then mailed participants’ postcards back to them on a date kept secret from the writer in the hopes that re-reading kind words would bring back those positive feelings. Ziegler says the campaign was so successful, it drew attention from the likes of actors Charlize Theron and Jack Black.

He reports that Lycored saw a 288% growth in digital Letters of Love over the previous month, as well as a whopping 688% increase in views of its online “Love is Beautiful” video, in which regular people were asked what they love about themselves. All told, Ziegler says, 5,900 postcards were written over the course of the Letters of Love tour across seven states.

Lycored has been just as tenacious in its online consumer outreach about beauty-from-within. #Rethinkbeautiful is Lycored’s social media hashtag campaign, which like the Letters of Love project, is intended to get consumers to “rethink beautiful” as something that comes from within. In addition, its interactive educational hub, Lycopedia, “tells the narrative journey of Lycopene and its effect on the body during different stages of life.” In creating the Lycopedia, Ziegler says, “our team’s hope is that it will act as a timeless resource that showcases the incredible health benefits of lycopene, the red-hued tomato-derived carotenoid used in food and beverage and oral supplementation.”

While Lycored may be a pioneer in helping shoppers understand the ingestible beauty category, Ziegler says, “We’re not alone in believing that beauty comes from within. The ingestible skincare category is set to go mainstream with two-thirds of consumers we questioned stating that eating and drinking their way to beautiful skin is normal.”

What’s next for Lycored in 2018? “As ingestible skincare becomes increasingly mainstream, our ‘beauty-from-within’ message is resonating even more strongly,” Ziegler says. “We will continue our #rethinkbeautiful movement to help everyone define what makes them look and feel their best for themselves.” Lycored has planted the seeds for a fruitful year indeed.

Other 2017 winners: 

Nutritional Outlook's 2017 Best of the Industry, Industry Leader: American Herbal Products Association

Nutritional Outlook's 2017 Best of the Industry, Ingredient Supplier/Service Provider: Brassica Protection Products

Nutritional Outlook's 2017 Best of the Industry, Ingredient Supplier/Service Provider: Bühler Insect Technology Solutions