3CE: Building a Beauty Community from Zero in Cambodia

3CE arrived in Cambodia with strong regional brand equity but no local digital community to speak to. Without an engaged base of followers, launches, content and promotions would reach no one, so building that foundation quickly and efficiently was the first priority.

The brand needed quality followers, Cambodian beauty consumers likely to engage and buy, rather than inflated numbers, and it needed them within a tight campaign window.

Ruder Finn Era treated follower recruitment as an optimisation problem rather than a media buy. The team ran a data-led programme across Facebook and TikTok, using ongoing content and audience performance insights to identify the content themes, audience segments and engagement opportunities most relevant to Cambodian beauty consumers.

Media investment was continuously refined and prioritised toward high-performing content and audiences, improving acquisition efficiency week by week while ensuring the community being built was relevant and engaged, not just large.

In three months the programme gave 3CE Cambodia a community of more than 100K followers across the two platforms as a foundation for long-term growth.