Nielsen has published its annual 2016 Breakthrough Innovation Award winners – and Sally Hansen Miracle Gel is the only beauty product to receive the award this year.

Close to 3,500 consumer products that were introduced to the market in 2014 were reviewed before choosing winners, using objective analysis. The other 17 winners are all consumer packaged goods products, in the home, pet and food categories. 

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel, by Coty, has “cracked the innovation code to maintain staying power in a crowded marketplace,” Neilsen states. The winning products all have more than $50 million in sales in its first year on the shelves, and more than 90% growth in year two.

Rob Wengel, principal, The Cambridge Group, leader of Strategic Innovation, Nielsen, and co-author of the Breakthrough Innovation Report, states: “The principles for successful innovation can apply to any category – including beauty – and can come from any company of any size. The Breakthrough Innovation winners, which were selected through objective criteria, represent a variety of categories across the store.”

Wengel continues, “Sally Hansen Miracle Gel is a great example of a high-achieving brand that delivers a professional product experience to the masses, despite navigating a segment with high competitive intensity. Breakthrough Innovation is not easy, nor is it luck. It is about a deep understanding of circumstances in people’s lives, finding their struggles and unmet aspirations that inform opportunities for innovative products and experiences – which the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel brand achieved. We’re thrilled to celebrate Coty’s success and will continue to leverage their win to predict how future winners will win in the beauty category.”

More About The Breakthrough Formulation

Coty acquired Sally Hansen in 2008 – and soon after, started development on the breakthrough formulation for Miracle Gel, which launched in July 2014. The two-step st-home gel nail color system doesn’t require a UV light to cure. Consumers choose a color, then apply the special topcoat, which is packaged in an opaque black bottle. 

Jeremy Lowenstein, vice president of global marketing, Coty, states in a case study: “We set out to develop a revolutionary new technology and introduce an amazing product, but the focal point for our innovation effort was not the technology or the product. It was the experiences we could enable for the women who buy Sally Hansen.”

The team had to solve technical challenges to develop the formulation – and be able to offer the salon-quality formula at the brand’s usual low price points. “This was a transformational product,” Lowenstein said, “enabling millions of women to access the
same quality of nail treatment historically reserved for the salon and with far greater convenience, ease of use and lower price.”

Lowenstein concluded, “Miracle Gel has also transformed and reenergized the Sally Hansen brand — bringing much more emotional energy and storytelling to the brand, making it far more engaging to our customers. And finally, the consumers: we know we have made millions of women feel special. We know we have helped create special moments—personal and social experiences for our end customers.”