The skincare industry is expanding steadily in the Philippines, especially as beauty and self-care took the center stage during the pandemic. Consumers have taken to educating themselves on what products are best and have come to expect more from the products that they use. At that time, numerous digitally native indie brands entered the market with niche positionings and unique benefits.

With the ever-changing digital landscape, there was an opportunity for Pond’s to expand to new formats and benefit spaces, to cater specially to emerging consumer needs. To maintain its spot as the market leader in the country, the challenge was clear: how could Pond’s get ahead and continuously come up with innovations on growing the business and engaging with customers at their level?

Aiming to maintain its #1 position and a 10% uplift, Pond’s leveraged on a virtual activation, a one-of-a-kind experience, and experience beauty for all.

Onground launches are imperative for immersive and experiential product trials

Pond’s, as with most beauty brands, typically launch new variants on-ground for consumers to fully immerse themselves and experience personally the bevy of products offered by the brand. Continued lockdowns at the start of 2022, however, hindered these activities from happening.

How could Pond’s, apart from showcasing its product range, also entice consumers in an engaging and immersive manner?

Tap into an immersive experience aimed to make the practice of skincare a healthy trend for fun and fearless Filipinas

Driven by the initiative to make meaningful connections and to address the skin concerns of modern-day Filipinas, Pond’s partnered with Summit Media, one of the country’s top digital content publications, and launched “Pond’s Summer Escape”, a one-of-a-kind fun and engaging virtual learning space that allows consumers to discover and create new ways to care for themselves, especially for their skin.

For skincare enthusiasts, Glass Skin checks all appropriate boxes. Inspired by K-drama actresses and their ideal skin, consumers are now willing to spend more on wellness and invest in skincare products. Hydration is also an area of fast-growing advantage consumers are closely associating with improving skin quality - it is recognized by skin care enthusiasts as the road to glass skin.

Pond’s knew, thru its first immersive metaverse event, Pond’s Pinklab which was launched in 2021, that people will take the chance to participate in immersive and interactive online spaces as it gives them a sense of community while also catering to their skincare inquires and needs to provide an overall exciting experience while getting their glow.

Pond’s Summer Escape was then born, one-of-a-kind fun and engaging virtual learning space that allows consumers to discover and create new ways to care for themselves, especially for their skin.

Creating an immersive experience for its fun-loving Pond’s girls

The Pond’s Summer Escape virtual hub contained the following key activities:

Chat with Skin Advisor Live (SAL)

Within the website, there is an option to chat with the POND’S Chatbot. Here, users can receive a personalized product recommendation by just taking a selfie, while simultaneous data collection occurs.

Interactive Media

Within Summer Escape, users can interact with several static and video assets. Each asset either educates the user on skincare tips and tricks or promotes the POND’S Healthy Hydration line.

Interactive Scavenger Hunt

Users are given the opportunity to collect different fruit slices hidden throughout the platform. Each time a fruit slice is found, they are given a skincare tip with a corresponding POND’S Healthy Hydration product. Once completed, users are given a voucher that can be used in Unilever’s e-commerce platform.

Overall, the POND’S virtual space achieved impressive business results:

• 19.3K website visitors within one week, proving the immediate interest of consumers in the campaign.

• 103K link clicks on Facebook, 157% higher than projected. A combination of Facebook content and influencer marketing within Meta helped POND’S achieve stellar results.

• 5.7M Filipinas were reached as opposed to the expected 5M amount, further exceeding expectations. This only shows how Filipinas were able to find enjoyment in their pursuit to glow brighter with POND’S

The success of Pond’s Summer Escape affirms that brand-related virtual spaces can be used to enhance user experience, both online and offline. It proved that the pandemic need not strip opportunities for product trials for the beauty industry. This campaign contributed an incredible 160% spike in product sales and the Pond’s Healthy Hydration line also saw a 17% sales uplift in Feb-Apr vs, the last 3 months