Work Diaries: How Lauren Celinski oversees YouTube’s first in-person and shoppable BeautyFest
Jun 14, 2022 – [[read-time]] minute read
We’re peeling back the curtains with our series, Work Diaries, where you can experience the inner workings of YouTube. How do decisions get made? What goes into a product, feature or policy? We’re asking YouTube employees to give us the low-down during a five-day period.
Featured today: As Shoppable Content Strategy and Tentpoles Lead, Lauren uses her background as a television executive to execute shopping’s biggest moments like this year's BeautyFest on Thursday June 16, the upcoming Home for the Holidays, as well as adding shopping to existing cultural moments.
Monday
7:00 a.m. Half of our producers are on the east coast so my day starts early checking in with the team. We shot with some surprise A-list guests over the weekend, so of course I wanted to hear how the footage is looking!
11:30 a.m. I hold our weekly Creative call where my PIBFs (Partners in BeautyFest) and the external production teams discuss all in-show creative. It’s the most fun meeting of the week! Can we finalize the shower Tracee Ellis Ross will be in? An update on Winnie Harlow and Jackie Aina’s segment? Have I seen the latest cut of SimplyNailogical’s pre-tape? What do you think of these chairs? (Hint: I love it all!)
12:30 p.m. Bridget and I meet with the head of Creator Programs to discuss the Lighthouse Creators we could approach for our Holiday tentpole. It’s never too early to start planning!
3:00 p.m. Our Production Manager Sarah and I work on the comms that will be sent out to all of our attendees — where to park, where to submit your Covid test, what time to arrive, what not to wear… running a live event on top of a live show is no joke, you guys.
6:00 p.m. I review the thumbnail and trailer that goes live tomorrow! But that means making sure we have the proper approvals, images and other business. It’s stressful but exciting that tomorrow the press release with our BF Trailer will be out in the world!
Today’s highlight: My boyfriend (now fiance!!!) proposed to me over the weekend, so I’m still enjoying the post proposal bliss (and phone calls, texts and messages) from friends and family who are so happy (maybe also relieved) that I finally found the one!
Tuesday
8 a.m. Our trailer is live! Last-minute scrambles to make sure we get it out in time and press has already started to trickle in like WWD and Glossy.co. Glossier announced their partnership with us for our first-ever Shoppable Shorts Challenge! They will be launching a new eyeliner exclusively with us for BeautyFest with Kehlani presenting some shorts during our live show.
10 a.m. The Partnership Operations team update me on how to utilize our new product feature, Live ReDirect. This will allow creators to direct their audience to our host Derek Blasberg’s channel for the livestream.
11 a.m. I present updates on BeautyFest at the Live Core Shopping meeting. I am always so impressed with the people on this team who use such strategic and analytical thinking. My creative thinking brain is always stretched — but in a good, post-workout way.
12:00 p.m. I run our weekly Tactical Sync where our production partners meet with the Live Solutions, Shopping Product, Product Partnerships, Partner Engineering and Partner Operations teams to walk through the more technical aspects of running a live show, coupled with making it shoppable. It literally takes a village (of very smart folks) to get a live show off the ground.
1:30 p.m. Listening to some music cues to pick the theme song for the show this year!
4:30 p.m. Counting how many fires I put out today, how many phone calls I’ve been on and how many glasses of wine I will have later…
6:00 p.m. Reviewing the finishing touches on the pre-tape packages for the show, including a routine swap with Hailey Bieber and Jen Atkin, a beauty gadget review with Safiya Nygaard, Brad Mondo’s Hair Challenge, SSSniperWolf’s Draw My Look, a Drag Queen Get Ready With Me with Violet Chacki and the makeup artist of Euphoria, and a bunch more.
Today’s highlight: Cleaning my kitchen — yes I swear! Our house is under renovations so everything is covered in dust (even the dust has a fresh layer of dust each morning) but tonight, so help me, at least four surface areas will be clean. Until tomorrow.
Wednesday
7 a.m. Kehlani launched the Glossier shorts challenge! My teammate Erika worked tirelessly with the Shorts team to launch this challenge for us — so proud to see it gaining momentum with YouTube creators!
8:30 a.m. We have our Go To Market call to discuss an upcoming integration with a new marketplace. I’m being hush hush for now but can’t wait until we announce it! I am helping build the content strategy for the Live channel they will be launching with us.
9:15 a.m. My 9:30 a.m. is canceled and I almost cry tears of joy. IYKYK.
10 a.m. Deals deals deals — I hop on the phone with the production company to see where we are at with our 30 talent deals, 4 brand deals, and 15 booth deals! It’s a lot to track and make sure we are buttoned up before next week.
11:30 a.m. I pick out balloons for the entrance to the Stage (L.O.L) as our show will take place at the historic Spruce Goose. There is no job too small when it comes to making this event a success!
12:00 p.m. We have our weekly Beauty Festival sync with about 50 different people in attendance! There are nearly a dozen teams working on this internally and we use this meeting to update everyone on high level project updates and to sync with our external production partners.
5:00 p.m. Bills, bills, bills — I go through the budget once more as urgent requests trickle in.
Today’s Highlight: I worked out HARD with my trainer this morning. I love a good sweat in the a.m. to kick start my day (sometimes that means no time for a shower until 5 p.m. — I know I’m not alone in this so don’t judge!)
Thursday
9 a.m. At the shopping town hall, our fearless leader Bridget gives an amazing breakdown of all the work the Shopping Team is doing and calls out BeautyFest and my new process for flagging Buzzy Moments and Hot Drops.
11:30 a.m. A week out from the show, I like to hold a daily stand up with a small group of stakeholders in the project. We go through urgent action items and luckily our Creator Lead Chanel is able to step in and help address last-minute needs. Her team helped get all of our amazing creators on board and wrangled the numerous needs and asks we had to pull this event off!
12 p.m. Watching the last pre-tape that came in from Gwen Stefani! Sorry I’m not home right now, I’m applying red lipstick for the remainder of the day…
2 p.m. While this day has less set meetings, it’s non-stop calls and emails to get the show ready — from troubleshooting the show graphics and getting live products drop ready to problem-solving changes with creative segments and doing a livestream test with our production partners.
4 p.m. Sarah and I regroup on invitations — between all the creators, brands, management and internals, we want to make sure everyone has the key details. And our RSVP list is officially closed!
5 p.m. Stepping away from the laptop to go on a walk.
7 p.m. Last looks at emails and seeing (with joy!) that Erika sent over a fully itemized product list organized by our Run of Show. I have such an amazing team working on this!
Today’s highlight: A good night’s sleep last night! With all the stress of a live event plus a live show plus a shoppable component, a restful night is a highlight!
Friday
7 a.m. You guessed it, already up and pinging with our east coast crew! Last-minute notes and strategizing on our big A-list guest feature.
9 a.m. I do find time to take a shower. Chris is grateful.
11:00 a.m. I hold a meeting to confirm Roles and Responsibilities for the internal folks who will be helping on show day.
12 — 4 p.m. Calls, emails, pings, oh my! We use Focus Fridays as a way to close up a lot of loose ends with RSVPs, contracts, edits, social assets with marketing and more.
6 p.m. Wrapping up the day before I head to set all next week!
A quick roll call of #BeautyFest by the numbers:
- 250 Attendees
- 30 In-show creators and celebs
- 23 Shoppable segments
- 20 Newly onboarded brands
- 17 Experiential booths
- 10+ Cross functional teams involved
- 7 Hot Drops of products during the show
- 6 Days to go until our show
- 2 Best in class production companies
- ONE amazing event and livestream!!!
Today’s highlight: Tonight my future sisters and brother-in-law take Chris and me out to celebrate our engagement! We’ll raise an additional toast to a successful event. Don’t forget to tune in on June 16 at 4 p.m PT / 7 p.m. ET at YouTube.com/BeautyFest!