Influencer has her own makeup line in partnership with Eudora
Bruna Martins is 28 years old and one of the first beauty youtubers in Brazil, but maybe you don’t know her by that name, but by her stage name: Niina Secrets.
With more than 3 million followers on Instagram and almost 4 million subscribers on Youtube, Niina created her channel in 2010 to share her makeup tips for the small beauty community that existed on the platform at the time.
Today, 12 years later, the influencer has her own makeup line in partnership with Eudora. “I’ve always had this desire. We took this conversation forward and formalized this dream”, stated Niina.
In addition to being the face of her own line, Niina continues to feature campaigns for various brands and companies, such as Garnier, Constance, Philips, Cooper Vision, Liz Lingerie, Dell, and others.
You were one of the first youtubers/influencers in Brazil. How did this all come about?
It all started when I was 15 and I discovered makeup tutorials on Youtube. I consumed this content a lot and managed to connect with those youtubes, at the time. They were normal girls, who were on their fours teaching and sharing tips. There, I thought, ah, I like makeup, I’m super vain… Why not share my tips too?. When I was 16 I created my channel, but as I was very shy, I didn’t tell anyone. I had no intentions, I just wanted to do it. While I didn’t want people to see it, I wanted that beauty community at the time to see my videos. Today, everyone records stories, takes selfies and everything else, but back then it wasn’t like that. If recording was a weird thing, you know? I didn’t want my schoolmates to find out, so I did it on the sly, just for that beauty community and never stopped.
At what point did you understand that this had become a profession?
There were two moments. The first was when I received an invitation from YouTube, from Google, to become a partner and start monetizing videos. At that time, not just anyone could monetize, they had to receive this invitation. When I received this letter, I thought what? I’m posted video for free, earning from it will be wonderful!. I realized then and there that I could make a little money out of it, but I didn’t know how much. To redeem the money, you had to save 100 dollars, so I kept waiting to get that money together, but at that time I had no idea of a career, of a profession. The second moment was when I signed my first contract. I had to open a company, issue an invoice, really professionalize and understand that it was a business, a job. This first contract was for a year, so I had a lot of deliveries, recording daily… Something I had never done in my life.
How was the relationship with brands at that time?
Back then, we were bloggers, you know? It was kind of belittled, had no recognition. The brands also didn’t know how to deal with and recognize this work, so it was a learning experience. We learned from the market and at the same time taught.
What was the first campaign you did?
It was a work with YouTube, in a Google project, called YouTube Beleza, which was a channel with beauty content and a brand behind it, which was LOreal. It was very cool. We had recording diaries, so can you imagine the tension and nervousness? I didn’t like to record in front of people, so it was a super learning experience. I did this project for two or three years.
What do you consider when closing a partnership with a brand?
Many things. My mother takes care of my commercial today and she is very close to the customers. She knows me and knows what I will or will not want to do. I like to understand the brand, if I know it, if I’ve ever worked, I like to know what the product is, what the campaign is, if it’s a launch… I always ask to test it first, to see if it makes sense. I need to understand if that will make sense to me and to my audience, for example, I don’t drink coffee so a coffee campaign doesn’t make sense. Today, I have prioritized longer partnerships, you know? I like to build a story and not just throw the product in there. My mother even gets angry with me because I say no more than yes, but it’s not worth closing a job today, which will be good money, if it will cost my credibility.
You launched your makeup and skincare line with Eudora. How did the brand idea come about?
I always had this desire. I had already collaborated with other brands, but they were small and punctual things. My real desire was to have my brand. In 2017, 2018, I started researching this to understand what this process was like, I visited suppliers and I was studying. At that time, I worked a lot with Eudora and they had hired me to do creative curation for them. In a conversation, this idea and my dream of having my own brand came up. I took a trip with them, to New York, to go to a makeup fair, thinking about products for Eudora and in the midst of all that, the idea of having the Niina Secrets line came up within the brand. We took this conversation further and formalized this dream. It was really cool and I understood in this research process how complicated and challenging it is to have your own brand.
In addition to being an influencer, you are now on the other side of the counter, from choosing the people who will participate in your brand’s campaigns. How this process?
very cool. I really reversed the roles and whenever there’s a launch, we think about the mailing list with great affection. All the people who are there were designed for that. The first thing I like to analyze and understand which influencer has the most feat with that product and that campaign, for example: I’m going to launch a colorful eyeshadow palette, so I need to research the influencers who rock the colored makeup, who rock that one. eye, who deliver the product and have a good video quality. After this selection, we make another selection, because we can’t hire all of us? For each campaign, we have a budget, so we have to choose. We also think a lot about diversity, different people to represent that product, because each person has their own vision and style.
Has the creation of your line influenced your relationship with other brands?
Yes and no. Speaking from my side, I’ve always shared beauty tips, so it would be weird for me to stop doing that and just talk about my product. I use a lot, I like to test new products and share tips. Of course, my brand will always be my focus, my darling, but I also advise on other products. On the other hand, in terms of brands, I feel that my work has decreased a lot, especially with the make and skincare brands, but I am also more selective with the brands that I will work with, because it also doesn’t make sense to do jobs for the competition. To me, it makes a lot of sense because I want to focus and focus on the Niina Secrets line.
About campaigns, both your brand and others, do you participate in the creation?
As an influencer, I participate in everything. There’s the negotiation with the brand and everything else, but the creative part is what I do. I think about the idea, sometimes I hire a video maker to do something different or I record right here. From my line, a little different. Eudora is the one who hires the creative agency, so we always have some meetings to discuss everything, play with ideas until we get to the concept. The agency has much more of this role of defining how the campaigns are going to be, but I always give my opinions.
More and more, new social networks are emerging. How do you adapt your content to each social network?
Every time a new network appears, I get desperate (laughs). We need to understand the language of each n network? I’m a creative youtuber, I have a very strong connection with the platform and I’ve always worked very well with it. L, I deal in a very natural way. Instagram changes very fast, every hour something is different, every hour the algorithm is different, so we have to renew ourselves very quickly, but I’ve been there for a long time, so I’ve been following these changes and I’m trying to adapt. TikTok, which is the newest network, was very difficult for me. We had a lot of this vision of dancing, of a hammock for children and adolescents, but during the pandemic I consumed the hammock a lot and understood the platform more. It has a lot of legal content and the network has its own language. I’m trying, I’m producing content that I like, what makeup, but in this TikTok language. I still feel a little out of place there because everything is so fast and my YouTube videos are 40 minutes long. On TikTok, the work is much more to let go of quality, perfection and too much information. I am learning. It makes sense for me to be there. Unlike Twitter, which for me, it doesn’t make sense for me to be there.
How do you handle each algorithm?
Instagram changes very fast, so something you were posting before doesn’t work anymore. It is very challenging and even discouraging for creators, because we will strive to produce content without knowing if the platform will deliver. hard to think about it. Of course, numbers and engagement are important, but if we keep thinking about it, we’ll only do what’s popular on the networks, what a controversy, dancing and that’s not my profile. Every influencer has their profile and that’s ok, but after many years in this area, I understood that I need to do my content and deliver my best. If the algorithm won’t deliver, be patient. I’m doing my best. If there’s a trend that’s going viral, but I don’t think it makes sense to me, I don’t do it because otherwise we end up getting lost. Of course, being aware of changes, what pumps or not, is important, but we need to focus on making our content and hoping that the algorithm delivers. Letting go of numbers is important for mental health.
A lot has changed since the time you started posting your content. For you, what else has changed?
So much has changed… But one thing that is glaring is the massification of all this. Before, there were few breeders and we knew them, today there are a lot. Sometimes I’m on TikTok, I go into someone’s profile and they have their 10 million followers there and I have no idea who they are. Today, everything is very gigantic. Another thing that changed was professionalization, the brands learned, we learned too. Today, we have influencers doing TV campaigns, which was very difficult. Another thing, the very rapid change of the internet. When I started on Youtube, I spent years making the same style and video format, but now things change very quickly.
How do you see yourself as a brand?
If I were to hire myself today, I would say professionalism. If to deliver on such day, we deliver. There’s not much mimimi of stardom here, of hitting the foot and saying I’m not going to do it. Of course, everything is negotiable, but I want to be seen professionally. Another thing that is very important to me is credibility. Today, there are many influencers who are bigger, in terms of numbers, than I am, but I know that because of my credibility, my value can be higher. People trust me a lot.
