L-R Mike Ramseyer, Leon Hughes, Herbie Dayal, Tracey Woodward, Justin Sedgmond, Stirling Murray

The Magic Circle is the world’s leading magic society, and it was also the venue for The 2016 Beauty Symposium, which explored the suitably magical theme of  “#Quantumbeauty – being everywhere at once”.

A packed audience listened to an eclectic mix of industry leaders who shared their thoughts, inspirations and insights into how to navigate a profitable way through the sometimes bewildering mix of new web-based retail channels and communication platforms.

Stirling Murray, founder of The Red Tree Consultancy, and Mike Ramseyer, founder of My Market Insight, hosted the event and all net proceeds were donated to the charity “Look Good Feel Better”.

Among the speakers were Leon Hughes, senior associate, e-commerce at Piper Private Equity, who revealed the astonishing statistic that more people now own a mobile device than own a toothbrush.

Next to take the platform was Justin Sedgmond, co-founder of Boutique Social. With more than 15 years experience of working in on-line advertising and e-commerce, Justin pointed out that the principles of shopping have not changed, but the way we engage and interact with shoppers has. It’s all about discovery, personal expression and instant gratification – and it needs to be fun. With “Buy” buttons now popping up across social media sites, Justin explained that social-driven retail sales and referral traffic is rising at a faster pace than any other online channel, making it no longer just “social”, but a massive commercial opportunity too.

Attendees also heard from Tracey Woodward. Previously commercial director of Urban Retreat, Tracey now works as a brand consultant to M&S, helping the UK’s fourth largest retailer to redesign and develop its beauty department. Having launched its first beauty concept department in 2012, the company already has 2.4 million unique beauty shoppers and 1.3 million Facebook fans. With 20 per cent of M&S beauty sales already coming from its website, Tracey believes the opportunity for growth through digital mediums is enormous.

The final presenter of the day was Herbie Dayal, co-founder of King of Shaves and KMI, who argued that although there are now numerous platforms available to do business on, past experience shows that technology is not the key to success. It is easy to become seduced by social media, said Herbie, but success in the blogosphere does not necessarily result in a profitable brand. Herbie’s advice is to focus on business first. That means defining your brand clearly, defining your target audience and making sure you have an effective distribution strategy in place. Get your “Brand/Tribe/Business” right first, not the other way around, he said, and you may have a chance at making social media work effectively for you.

The audience left The Beauty Symposium feeling inspired and much better equipped to deal with engaging and embracing a target market that is everywhere, yet nowhere for very long.

To find out more about this and past Beauty Symposium events, click here.