How we collaborated with creators to disrupt the cosmetics category
1000heads Relationships Manager Lou Gould unpacks what it took to create an award-winning global campaign for iconic beauty brand Nails INC.
Check out the case study at 1000heads.com/work/nails-inc-nailing-life/
Have you ever seen a championship diver attempt to do her nails on a diving board?
No? Neither had I – until legendary Diver Morgane Herculano and I met to talk ideas.
It all started at the beginning of the year, when the 1000heads team responsible for running influencer marketing programmes – The Relationships Team – was handed a brilliantly challenging brief: supercharge the launch of Nails INC’s revolutionary new ‘It’s Topless’ nail polish in the US, Canada and UK.
It was a cold Winter’s morning in London, and a room full of women gathered – energised, ambitious, fully aware of the mountain ahead – a 1000heads team made up of talented heads from our Community, Creative, Strategy, and Media functions, and us, the Relationships team, ready to create something worthy of a much-loved London brand and its inspirational founder, Thea Green.
We began by listing all the things women are expected to juggle daily: the pressures, the unnecessary complexities, the moments that tip us over the edge. And the truth became obvious – life is already complicated, your nail routine shouldn’t be. Why carry four products when one can do the job?
That thought became our campaign: #NailingLife
To reach consumers authentically – especially in culture we weren’t always physically in – we knew we needed creators who embodied chaos, capability and charm in equal measure.
Mothers. DIY queens. Entrepreneurs. Dancers. Athletes. Chefs.
Women who live life in the fast lane and still make space to show up beautifully. We asked: How would one product change the way they move through their world?
And then we found them.
Creators squeezing in a manicure before their next project.
Athletes and dancers showing eight-day shine through sweat, rehearsals and spotlights.
Nail pros giving us behind-the-scenes magic from salon floors to self-care Sundays.
And my favourite: the parking-lot polish moment – real women fresh out of Target, Walmart and Shoppers Drug Mart taking 50 seconds in their car to paint, pause, reflect and share real pits and peaks.
Across the UK, US and Canada, we recruited 81 creators to tell their #nailinglife story in their own voice.
No retouching. No filters. No forced “effortless”. Just real people, real nails, real life.
The result? Sellouts in Target, Walmart, Superdrug and on Amazon.
Proof that when you let influencers be themselves, they influence far more than sales – they shift conversation.
I’m going to share exactly how we reached 12.6 million – through influencer marketing done right.
📈 We Started With the Data
Every good strategy begins with understanding who we’re speaking to – and why they should care.
So we grounded ourselves in the audience insights: three core life-stage-driven segments, each with distinct motivations, pressures and behaviours.
From “Time-Pressed Parents” to “Chic Socialites” to “Girls on the Go,” we mapped not just demographics, but passions, routines and the emotional moments where Nails INC could genuinely add value.
❤️🔥 We Built Passion Pillars
From this, we identified the passion areas that would guide the campaign – beauty, fitness, DIY, lifestyle, motherhood, entrepreneurship and more.
These pillars didn’t just help us understand what people were interested in; they gave us a framework for identifying the creators who lived these worlds authentically.
🔊 We Found the Right Voices
With clarity on who we wanted to reach, we began building longlists. We surfaced:
- 80 micro creators for the launch (North America / UK at a strategic 4 / 1 split)
- 79 mid-tier creators
- 24 macro creators
All feeding into our elite squad, those that we would launch with. The group we expected to drive not just reach, but resonance.
These weren’t just influencers; they were people who embodied #NailingLife.
📝 We Crafted a Brief That Inspired, But Didn’t Dictate
Next came the brief. We wrote a comprehensive introduction to the brand – its tone, heritage, ambition – supported by content examples designed to spark imagination rather than box creators in. Clear enough to set direction, open enough to leave room for personality.
For creators with more complex storytelling styles, we jumped on calls. This wasn’t transactional – it was relationship building.
By understanding their workflow, their audience, and their ambitions, we ensured the partnership felt collaborative, not prescriptive.
The goal was simple: nurture talent while keeping the brand at the centre of the story.
🤝 We Emphasised Partnership Over Prescription
At every step, we worked with the creators.
From concepting, to first drafts, to final edits, it was a genuinely collaborative process. Those warm, trusting relationships became the engine of the campaign – unlocking higher quality content, richer ideas and, importantly, the ability to keep creators engaged long after their initial post. Spotting Moments That Matter
As we got to know our creators, we started uncovering the personal stories that would make the campaign sing.
When we found out Nat Taylor had just gotten engaged, we instantly knew there was an opportunity: What does #nailinglife look like when you’re prepping for the biggest day of your life? Her audience loved the behind-the-scenes of wedding dress shopping, and the integration of Nails INC felt natural, intimate, and share-worthy – the perfect blend of real life and brand relevance.
✌️ We Built a Community, Not Just a Campaign
We didn’t stop at delivering assets.
We celebrated our creators’ milestones, supported their moments, amplified their stories and made them feel part of something bigger. That sense of community kept momentum high and creativity flowing – and it’s one of the biggest reasons the campaign continued to grow organically.
There you have it – a campaign powered by data, strengthened by real relationships, and made possible by a deep, nuanced understanding of the influencer marketplace.
This wasn’t just about selecting creators or sending out product; it was about building an ecosystem of voices who could authentically carry a message into the everyday moments that matter.
And the truth is, this kind of success only happens when a brand genuinely trusts its partners. When they look to you as the experts, give you the space to think boldly, and empower you to do your best work.
When that trust is there, creativity opens up, relationships flourish, and the work goes from being simply effective to truly culture-shaping.
This is what it looks like when strategy, insight and creativity meet at exactly the right moment and when a brand believes in the power of doing influencer marketing the right way.
Check out the case study at 1000heads.com/work/nails-inc-nailing-life/
Email info@1000heads.com if you’d like to talk about how 1000heads can transform your brand.