Building Social Proof Through Peer-to-Peer Conversations
QV Skincare is Australia’s #1 skincare brand, trusted for more than 50 years and available in over 20 countries worldwide. This case study focuses on the UK market.
QV had already built strong product credibility in the UK, supported by highly rated retailer reviews, including a 4.7/5 rating on Boots UK, one of the country’s largest pharmacy and beauty chains.
However, while trust in the product was strong among existing users, overall brand awareness in the wider UK market still had room to grow.
Brief
QV UK approached Eureka Digital with a clear challenge: how to grow brand awareness in the UK market.
Their Goals:
- Engage consumers actively discussing skincare needs online
- Build awareness and social proof through genuine experiences and recommendations
- Respond wherever QV products were naturally mentioned
- Encourage advocacy from customers, creators, and everyday users
- Explore engagement opportunities with other stakeholders such as healthcare professionals through appropriate channels
- Increase visibility in the UK through authentic word of mouth
This was especially relevant in a market where purchase decisions are heavily influenced by reviews, recommendations, and user-generated experiences.
Solution
- Our first recommendation was to avoid direct engagement with healthcare professionals in public discussions:
This helped reduce regulatory complexity around approvals, consent requirements, and compliance processes, while allowing the brand to move faster and focus where influence was strongest: real consumer conversations, and human-generated content.
The client appreciated our transparency and agreed with this strategic direction.
- Our second recommendation was built around one clear consumer truth:
Today’s audiences trust people like them more than polished advertising.
They research deeply, compare experiences, read discussions, and rely on genuine recommendations before making a purchase decision.
So rather than interrupting the customer journey with promotional messaging, we positioned QV Skincare naturally within it.
Our Strategic Framework
Our strategy was built on two key pillars that worked together to achieve the clients objectives:
1. Thinking Beyond Traditional Community Management
Most brands limit community management to their owned social channels. We chose to think more strategically.
Instead of only monitoring brand pages, we expanded QV Skincare presence into wider consumer discussion spaces where skincare consumers openly discuss concerns, compare products, ask for recommendations, and trust peer experiences.
So, in addition to major social platforms in the UK such as Instagram and TikTok, we also focused on the channels where real conversations take place such as Reddit, the fourth most visited social media in the UK.
By positioning QV within these conversations, we helped the brand become part of the decision-making process naturally.
2. Using Medically Aware Community Experts
The second pillar of our strategy was the people behind the conversations.
One of Eureka’s strongest advantages is that more than 30 members of our team come from medical backgrounds, including pharmacists and physicians.
This gave QV a rare competitive edge…
Our community management was not handled by generic moderators. It was led by specialists who understand:
- Skin conditions
- Symptoms
- Treatment mechanisms
- Contraindications
- Consumer pain points
- Medical accuracy
This combination of authenticity and expertise created highly credible peer-to-peer engagement, stronger trust, and more meaningful recommendations.
Key Tactics
1. Peer-to-Peer Engagement
After identifying high-engagement consumer communities in the UK where people openly discuss eczema, dryness, irritation, sensitive skin, and product recommendations, we positioned our team within those conversations in a natural and value-led way.
We listened first, understood the need, contributed helpfully, and introduced relevant QV Skincare solutions where appropriate.
No hard selling. No forced promotion. Just useful participation that felt authentic and trusted.
This same peer-to-peer approach was also extended to key social platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, where our managed profiles actively participated in relevant skincare conversations and creator content.
2. Creating Social Proof
We strategically sparked conversations around QV’s therapeutic areas, helping generate strong engagement and authentic product visibility.
As these profiles consistently provided useful input and credible recommendations, they gradually became recognised as trusted voices within skincare discussions.
3. Traditional Social Community Management
Alongside peer engagement, we also managed QV’s owned social media accounts directly.
Whenever the brand was mentioned, our team responded quickly and accurately using our structured comment-handling model, ensuring every interaction strengthened trust and customer experience.
Our day-to-day community management covered:
- TikTok
- YouTube
4. Pharmacovigilance Reporting
Because skincare brands require responsibility beyond engagement, we also supported pharmacovigilance reporting processes.
Results
This social-proof model, built around authentic reviews and user-generated conversations, delivered strong results for QV Skincare in the UK market.
It successfully:
- Generated hundreds of thousands of organic views across platforms
- Achieved hundreds of engagements and upvotes
- Increased brand awareness in the UK market
Final Thought
This campaign succeeded because it aligned three critical forces:
- Medical accuracy
- Consumer behavior understanding
- Platform-native communication style (peer-to-peer conversations)
When these three work together, the brand shows up in a way people genuinely value and trust.
