💄 How MAC Climbed the GCC EMV Charts with Micro Creators
The Challenge
The regional team at MAC Cosmetics received global insights highlighting their Earned Media Value (EMV) performance across GCC markets.
While MAC maintained strong brand equity, the data revealed a clear opportunity: scale creator content production to accelerate EMV growth and climb the regional rankings.
To strengthen its presence on TikTok and compete more aggressively on the EMV charts across the GCC, the objective was to activate a large network of creators across Saudi Arabia and the UAE, ensuring TikTok remained the primary content platform.
Success would depend on two key outcomes:
- A significant increase in creator-generated content
- A measurable improvement in MAC’s regional EMV ranking
The Strategy
Instead of approaching this as a traditional product seeding campaign, we designed an always-on creator activation program built for scale and measurable performance.
The initiative focused on mobilizing a large network of micro-creators across Saudi Arabia and the UAE, prioritizing authentic TikTok content that could scale organically.
To enable this, we first aligned with MAC’s global team on the EMV measurement framework, ensuring our tracking systems reflected the same calculation methodology.
We then optimized the creator journey end-to-end:
Technology-driven outreach:
Traditional email outreach was replaced with WhatsApp-based automations, enabling faster creator responses and significantly improving participation rates.
Streamlined creator onboarding:
A structured co-creation model allowed creators to participate efficiently while maintaining the authenticity of their content.
Automated performance tracking:
Custom dashboards monitored content delivery and EMV performance in real time.
Quality control at scale:
A semi-automated review process ensured brand safety and performance standards while still enabling a high volume of creator output.
The Results
The program quickly demonstrated how creator seeding at scale can drive measurable performance when supported by the right infrastructure.
Within the first month:
- 150 pieces of creator content were delivered generating a continuous stream of TikTok content as part of the always-on initiative.
Within three months:
- 500+ pieces of content were generated
- 100% creator delivery rate
- 30% of the content outperformed the creators’ average performance
Most importantly, the organic creator activity translated into a significant EMV uplift, moving MAC from 6th to 3rd place in the regional EMV rankings, achieved entirely organically.
This initiative demonstrated how creator seeding, when structured for scale, can evolve from a traditional PR tactic into a powerful performance engine. By combining technology, automation, and a creator-first approach, MAC Cosmetics was able to significantly expand its TikTok presence and strengthen its competitive position in the GCC, all through organic creator advocacy.
