Rhode Beauty Goes Viral (Again)
It’s been a week now since Hailey Bieber debuted her new Rhode phone case, so if you haven’t placed your order for it just yet, I strongly advise you to do so now. Except, you can only place a pre-order for it, as the cases will not ship until April, but what is waiting a couple of months for your case compared to the thrill of flaunting TikTok’s latest obsession.
Almost a month ago, the world woke up to Hailey Bieber posing in her very coquette pjs, holding her phone in her left hand to take a very casual mirror selfie, as we all do on hectic mornings. This time, however, it wasn’t Hailey’s hair color or nail polish that caught everyone’s eye, no, it was her Rhode-branded phone case. This was not your average phone case, no; Rhode’s case has a special compartment designed specifically for customers to store their Rhode Peptide Lip Treatment.
Truth be told, the case had already made an appearance during the Superbowl, during a much-needed mi-game touch-up. The phone case marketing campaign was also tied to Hailey’s Strawberry Glaze Soft Serve collab she did with Erewhon, the ultra-pricey grocery store. Customers purchasing Hailey’s smoothie had the chance to play Rhode scratch cards for the chance of winning one of the brand’s beauty products, including the elusive phone case.
Naturally, as everything Hailey Bieber does, the introduction of such a niche phone case generated quite a bit of buzz. For starters, people complained about how the phone case only works with iPhones 14 and 15, and it is not MagSafe compatible, but perhaps functionality was not the main purpose for launching such product. It is undeniable, that since the case took over our social media, brand awareness for Rhode Skin has grown, which proves how effective launching the product was as part of the brand’s marketing strategy. Likewise, the introduction of non-beauty products will most likely increase Rhode customers’ AOV, which is also quite genius.
The buzz created by the case inspired several other beauty brands to launch their “own version” of the product, with Benefit Cosmetics posting a video of their iconic Benetint being taped to a phone.
Whilst the case is seen as peak consumerism, only time will tell if the case survives the TikTok trend cycle.
