Behind the Brand - RED Burlesque

Article compiled by BR Natalie

Last week we introduced a girl's best friend - RED Burlesque.  A company dedicated to helping you find your perfect shade of red lipstick.  And like us, it seems our members were instantly enamoured and excited by a brand so true to it's mission.  So we decided we had to know more.

We caught up with CEO Adam Coutts to go behind the brand.

- What is your background?  How long have you been in the Beauty Industry?

I guess the current term for me would be Entrepreneur. For the first five years of my working life I was a Copywriter and then Creative Director for a few of the big multinational ad agencies (Lintas, McCann and Ogilvy). 

At the tender age of 23 I decided I knew everything there was to know about advertising (too young and too ‘testosteroned’ to know better!) and set up my own agency. So I was Creative Director of my own agency for the next 15 or so years and worked with a number of clients, including a number of big beauty brands.

After 15 years I got bored, exited the agency and set up a street media company that had fleets of red motor scooters with advertising trailers behind them. We sent them out into the streets of all capital cities in Australia for clients as an attention getting way for advertisers - beauty brands included - to get noticed in a completely new and fun way. 

Then I co-founded a guerrilla projection business that developed battery powered video projector kits that enabled us to send teams out into the streets at night to project TV commercials and other video content onto walls of city buildings, nightclubs and pubs … up to 10 metres wide! 

Just prior to launching Red Burlesque I had a brain fart and accepted a job (my first job working for someone else in over 20 years!!) as Global Marketing Director for an advertising tech company. Suffice to say that after running my own companies for so long, answering to a CEO all of a sudden wasn’t something I was cut out for, but I stuck it out for 2 1/2 years more so for the novelty of someone else paying my salary!

- How did the idea to launch a red lipstick company come about?

An ex partner was a Burlesque producer, so I got to know a lot of performers from all over the world and of all the professions in the world, the one where red lipstick is worn almost universally is Burlesque! 

Then came the realisation that the reason so many women think they can’t wear red lipstick is because there’s never been a large enough range of shades for them to choose from. The largest range I could find at the time was a meagre 12 or so. 

So … I picked 21 globally renowned Burlesque performers, let them each choose their own shade of red lipstick which would carry their name and then launched the largest range of red lipsticks on the planet under the name Red Burlesque.

- What is the philosophy behind RED Burlesque?  What does it stand for?

The brand exists to give women who love red lipstick the chance to rock more than just one or two shades, and educate women who think they can't do red lipstick that there are at least four shades in our range they will rock and feel completely confident and gorgeous wearing them. 

The quality of ingredients we use is at the core of every product we produce. We're a premium brand that more than holds it’s own against any other premium lipstick on the market. We’ve converted many long time devotees of high fashion brands such as Chanel, YSL and Tom Ford, as well as countless Mac wearers.

- To many people, you would have their dream job, what is the best thing about working for such a gorgeous cosmetic brand?

For me it’s seeing all the selfies women from all over the world email us and post on social media and the global buzz we’re creating in the beauty market. Of course if I was a woman I guess creating new shades and having an endless supply of red lipstick to wear would probably be right up there.

- It sounds like you have a really glamorous job; do you rub shoulders with the rich and famous?  And what is the burlesque world like?

I tend not to get too caught up in the hype of the industry and keep a reasonably low profile. The brand is the one that needs to be in the spotlight, not me.

The Burlesque world? Crazy, funny … actually, often bloody hilarious ... electric. Filled with amazing women who really do belong on stage (especially all the Red Burlesque girls!) And equally amazing men! Yes, Boylesque/Brolesque is a thing too and the best of them are incredible performers with brilliant stage acts (look up the Stagedoor Johnnies and Captain Mark ‘Captain Kidd’ Winmill. 

Once again I try to keep a reasonably low profile but I do try to get to a show somewhere at least once a month. 

- What is your best selling shade?  Why do you think that is?

That’s a really hard one to answer because different shades are best sellers in different parts of the world. And even then it depends on what season it is as women tend to go for deeper shades towards Winter and brighter shades towards Summer.

Virtually all the Red Burlesque shades are pretty evenly matched as best sellers, which is great because it proves that a premium range this big is truly wanted.

- If you could give one piece of advice to people about how to rock red lipstick, what would it be?

If you want to wear a red that stands out or makes a statement, back off on the rest of your makeup. Mascara and a bold red will take you anywhere, so don’t go overboard with anything else on your face!

- What advice would you give to someone reading this who has an idea that like RED Burlesque, is just a little bit different?

As an entrepreneur, I’ve had many business ideas and far more failures than successes. What that teaches you though is that ‘a little bit different’ isn’t different enough. You’ve also got to create a difference that means something. Being different just for the sake of being able to say your different won’t work. You have to have total belief and passion in the difference you’re creating and making to people’s lives. Most consumers are very quick to pick up on insincere brands.

- What’s been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

I have to go with Red Burlesque on that one as it’s the first time I’ve set out to create a global consumer brand. All my previous businesses have been business to business, service-based companies. Business to consumer - although I’ve often been heavily involved the advertising and marketing side - is something completely out of the box for me. Especially a global beauty brand.

- What has been the biggest challenge you've faced?

Being male! My initial thought was that Red Burlesque would be a predominantly online only brand. 

I didn’t quite grasp the need for women to touch, smell and try lipstick on before buying it. When it began to sink in my answer was to create an iPhone app called Red Lipstick (the App Store link is http://bit.ly/1hdYofP) that enabled one to take a selfie and see how each shade of Red Burlesque looks on them. It was the first ever app that incorporated a lip tracker to automatically find your lips when you took a selfie with it and then place the lipstick on your lips. 

The technology the app used was incredible at the time - not absolutely perfect - but streets ahead of anything else available.

Technology has come ahead in leaps and bounds in the last 18 months, so we’re working on the next version that will bring a whole new level of accuracy and features to the app.

- What does a normal day for you consist of?

I’m usually up by about 5-5.30am most days. Because of the many different world time zones our suppliers and customers are in, early mornings tends to be the best time to get everyone while they’re still at work. So I’ll spend a couple of hours or so doing that, as well as checking up on what’s happening across our social media accounts, looking at the day’s orders and in-between try to catch the morning news to see what’s happening outside my world.

The rest of the day is always varied as I also have a few other businesses in various stages of startup and growth. There is always plenty of variety in my days.

- How do you relax?

At around 8am most weekdays I go to the gym, which is my headspace and out of workplace relaxation time. And then there’s the weekends, which are generally pretty free of work … except for work-related shows, but I don’t think anyone could call that work.

- Can you give us a hint about what is next for RED Burlesque?  (Hint:  A few members are looking for their perfect purple lipstick….)

One thing about Red Burlesque is that it will always be based around red lipsticks, so sorry to disappoint those who were hoping for other colours. What I can hint at is that a range of little bottles with little brushes inside, each designed to match each shade of Red Burlesque lipstick and can be painted somewhere on your fingers is in the works ...