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Beautifying the world with a wink and smile (and Slack)

“Slack really cuts down on response time. If something’s urgent (or incredibly funny), Slack me.”

Emily DybwadDigital Marketing Manager, Benefit

Benefit Cosmetics is a subsidiary of French multinational luxury goods conglomerate LVMH. It started with a coin toss between twin sisters and founders Jane and Jean Ford, who couldn’t decide whether to start a casserole café or a beauty boutique. Today, Benefit products are sold at more than 5,000 counters and in more than 52 markets, but their success doesn’t rest on luck. From day one, the sisters infused whimsy, humour and a feel-good-to-look-good vibe into their brand.

When the company wanted to spread their brand worldwide, they turned to Slack. Slack was already the company’s project communication hub, so when they set off to launch 40 native-language websites around the world, it was natural to house all their planning in Slack too. They created a project channel for each website to share files, iterate on copy and get consensus on concepts. If a site needs an update, the San Francisco team jump into Slack to quickly alert colleagues overseas.

Slack also enables them to leverage global time differences and fix errors during varying off and on hours. The guest access feature, which lets Benefit invite company outsiders into their Slack channels, helps to coordinate their marketing efforts with external partners.

“We have people in market around the world and if we’re launching at 10 o’clock US time, it’s 8 or 9 in Europe,” explains Emily Dybwad, Digital Marketing Manager. “Having Slack available is a way for them to go through the QA process without having to go through all the back and forth. It allows us to be able respond really quickly given time zones.”

Benefit takes advantage of the fun side of Slack too. Their Slack includes an array of channels on pop culture, inspiring campaigns and, of course, beauty and styling tips.

“At Benefit, we believe that laughter is the best cosmetic,” adds Dybwad. “We’ve used the Slackbot feature for work and play. We have a bot that delivers a fun emoji whenever someone types in ‘La Croix’, our favourite beverage.”