SK-II, a prestige skincare brand that has been in market for 35 years, is known for an iconic flagship product called Facial Treatment Essence. The challenge for the brand, however, was that younger women, although they admit that the SK-II products work, was losing relevance. It had become their mothers’ brand.

Through a number of interviews with women in the key markets (Japan, Korea, China), the team came to realize that there was a much bigger issue at stake.

Not only our women believe that their skin can get as good as your DNA is, 80% of them believe their lives are destined by what they are born with, and 81% of them believe there are standards society imposes on women that limits their potential.

This led us to our insight – “I spend the most of my life trying to fit into the ‘box.’ Do I have the courage to change my destiny?”

We call this the “Box” insight.

From there, the objective was clear. We wanted to shift the brand from “a skincare brand for my mom” to “a brand that stands for what I care about.”

The creative idea was, simply, “Change Destiny.”

There was a dramatic change in the way the brand communicated. We kicked off with a manifesto film featuring Tang Wei, telling her own #changedestiny story (launched 2015). This powerful story was supported by organic distribution that boosted the authenticity, together with JBP with top video sites for top page exposure and co-ops with on/offline beauty media.

Change in the way Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) started when they organically started to endorse and share the message on social media.

To amplify the message, we collaborated with the “Agents of Change” – carefully selected Asia’s most powerful KOLs with #changedestiny stories of their own to share, joined the movement in the form of video content.

Finally, change in the behavior of women happened when we simply asked them the question, “what is your #changedestiny story?” on social platforms such as Douban and Zhihu.

The response was phenomenal – in China alone, the Tang Wei manifesto reached 21 million views in just 3 weeks and 163,700 interactions – three times more engagement than the competitive brands.

Over 67,000+ people participated to created #changedestiny posters on Zhihu, some of which became the top trending topics on China’s hottest news sites.

As of April 2016, 9 months after the launch of #changedestiny, online SOV grew from 21% to 81%, making SK-II the most talked about brand in the category.