Originally, unboxing meant filming a product as you were taking it out of its packaging. These days, there are plenty of strategies for getting influencers and YouTubers to unbox products on their social media platforms, wowing their followers and other viewers.
Years ago, I thought it was all pretty pointless. It still seems a bit strange to me today, but history proves that when this tactic is well thought out, the numbers speak for themselves. People just love watching videos of products being unboxed.
Of course, what our clients who use the unboxing tactic want is to introduce a target customer base to their latest products and grab the attention of newer and younger consumers.
For the past few years, the big brands have been ingeniously vying to stir up envy and be chosen by the key influencers in their industry. We work with a lot of beauty brands, and the boxes being sent to influencers can be luxurious enough to warrant being added to their collection.
As you can imagine, big groups like LVMH and L’ORÉAL and brands like Chanel can deploy enormous resources to create genuine beauty boxes at very high volumes, and therefore at a reasonable cost.
These companies are experts in creating desire in their customers and influencers, and everyone wants the amazing Guerlain or Skinceuticals boxes.
Over the past few years, unboxing has reached new heights in North America with “advent boxes,” which reveal one of a company's products for each day of the countdown to Christmas. These are amazing boxes that you can open a section of each day. You can see how this tactic would get the same influencer to talk about you for several days.
Beauty brands – but also tea, chocolate and other gourmet brands – really outdo themselves in creating these fabulous boxes, which customers can also purchase.
Our marketing friends like to think this is a tactic unique to them, but I can assure you, this is pure public relations:

You're giving your boxes to reporters and influencers (which they're free to accept or reject);
No money changes hands – if they accept the box, there’s a good chance they’ll talk about it.

It’s the very foundation of what we’re doing every day at the agency: introducing our clients’ products with no money changing hands first. It’s possible that later, we could pitch a paid collaboration with influencers whose communities have the best reaction to the products being presented.
So, yes, unboxing is a public relations tactic.
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