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On a Tuesday morning in November, a crowd of flawless bloggers gather at 8 am in a Sephora store to nibble tiny toast to the lawyer, their lipstick never moving. They are there to listen to Google's arguments and explain to them why they should give way to the company's new Home Hub Smart Screen to their vanity. Google has partnered with Sephora to demonstrate the utility of the device as a way to call tutorial videos on YouTube.
Before the start of the presentation, Sephora's beauty director, Myisha Sewell, dressed in what looks like black-and-white polka dot silk pajamas, carefully arranges a range of compacts and liners next to a Google Home Hub in red color on a base that will serve as a demonstration vanity.
"The fact that it's a hands-free system is really great," she says. "You will not go makeup on your phone, you will not need to balance your laptop on the top of your bathroom cabinet and you will have a disaster. It is something very easy to integrate into your life. "The Yoice control via the Google Assistant, a new feature this year in YouTube, not only allows you to create videos, play and pause on demand, but also to move things forward quickly.
Sewell begins by asking the assistant for a tutorial on Sephora's eyebrows. If you want to promote the Sephora brand as part of this marketing campaign, the beauty of putting YouTube on your vanity is that it offers a complete library of makeup tutorials, both by amateurs and influencers. .
In fact, tutorials of all kinds are an important engine for YouTube. According to a recent poll by Pew Research, more than half of users believe that YouTube is an important source for learning to do something that they have never done before. The data suggests that tutorials, more than time killers or product reviews, attract people to the platform.
That's why it was not particularly surprising that Google decided in October to invest $ 20 million in educational videos. When this news was announced, the company was trying fanfully to fill its content platform that brands would feel safe to advertise. Before the announcement, an article published in the United Kingdom Sunday Times reported that brands saw their ads alongside sectarian and extremist content. Of course, Google would like to stand out from its most deplorable content, but educational videos are very appealing.
In 2017, more than 1 billion hours of viewing were recorded in YouTube videos titled "How to do", up 75% from 2015. 81 people conducted 81 million beauty searches during the last year. Makeup gurus Nikki De Jager and James Charles alone have 11 and 10 million subscribers, respectively.
At home, in my vanity, a Google Home Marine Moss Color Hub fits snugly between a long, lean wooden jewelry box and an old green gift box that my mother cut out with pictures of Bob Dylan while he was wearing it. she was a teenager. I'm pretty inconsistent in makeup. Sometimes I wear it, sometimes I do not do it. As for my prowess, I'm somewhere in the middle: I do not understand the basics, but master the cat's eye.
I recently bought a new lipstick and I thought that the arrival of Home Hub would be a good opportunity to actually learn to apply it. I call Google to find me a video explaining how to put on lipstick. In the video chosen by Google, the woman does not use a lip pencil. Instead, she takes a small brush, stamps it on the lipstick, then draws her lips with the brush before filling them with the stick. I'm learning something new. I'm also learning that you can use a concealer to correct lipstick errors afterwards, a new favorite round.
There are other things I would like to learn besides makeup, such as how to retouch a kitchen backsplash or reassemble a coffee grinder (do not ask). Unfortunately, since the Home Hub is connected to an electrical outlet, it can not easily go home because I am looking for new projects. (It's probably there that Google would recommend that I receive more than one $ 150 device.)
More than just tutorials
There are of course other things that Home Hub can do with my vanity. This can remind me of the day's schedule or the weather or traffic, although it is a relatively standard rate for home helpers. I can also go shopping – for example, take a new blush when I'm running out. However, purchases are limited to stores on Google Express, which means that choices are meager. Sephora, for example, does not sell its products there.
I've been looking for some redness Stila. Google Assistant said he could not find the one I was looking for, then said, nostalgically, that he was still learning. When he found another article on which I had asked the question, a generic foundation, it was difficult to get the right hue. Product details were also rare, but the "Add to Cart" button was in the front and center.
I've tried to buy the same products on Echo from Amazon. Her assistant Alexa managed to find Stila's blush, although she could not find the exact shade I wanted. This has therefore encouraged me to look into the Alexa application to make more specific decisions. In the application, I could change the shadow of the default one to the one I was looking for.
Although Alexa can help me to buy makeup, even Echo Show, equipped with a screen, is not very good at me to learn how to put it because it does not Access to YouTube only through a browser-based experience, without voice control. The Google home hub certainly has the advantage here, however, Facebook's similar style video messaging device, Portal, also has access to YouTube (and to the Alexa) . While not all of these devices target the brightest point in the vanity, they all want to be part of the house and may not have the same space.
Back in Sephora, once the presentation is over, bloggers are walking around a mirrored bar, learning about the free makeover compliments of Google and Sephora. Some remain behind, gathering around the Home Hub and asking questions. A representative from Google shows the voice control functions again, switches from one video to another, and then asks the assistant to pause. "I'm also asking silly questions," said the representative.
"Is it compatible with Alexa?" Asks one of the bloggers. Unfortunately no, the Google Home hub is not compatible with Alexa, replies the representative.
"Oh, well, we are an Alexa family," says the blogger.
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