The situation: Cosmetic dermatology lives under a cloud of stigma: That it’s only for the vain and shallow – from reality-TV stars to those who want to look like them. What’s more, cosmetic dermatology clinics pump out photoshopped images that all look the same!

The brief: At launch, The Beauty Clinic by Shoppers wanted to stand out while standing for something deeper. We knew we had an opportunity to tap into the positive emotional effects of cosmetic dermatology because research showed that 70% of Canadian consumers want to increase self-confidence.

The objectives:

1. Communication Objectives

• Generate brand awareness by reaching 2MM unique consumers

• Engage audiences with a 15% view rate (based on a 50% video view) for all video assets

2. Business Objective

• Grow the number of leads for consultations by the end of 2019

Creative idea: When you think you look good, you feel more confident. And when you feel more confident, you look even better! And that’s when you get those second glances from people. But we didn’t want to concern ourselves with how other people see you. We focused on something more meaningful: how you look to yourself and the emotional impact that has. We wanted to bring that deeper-than-skin-deep-feel-good emotional lift. So, instead of others giving you that second glance, why not give yourself that second glance.

Research showed consumers understood the positive emotional effects of cosmetic dermatology. Research also showed that 70% of Canadian consumers wanted to feel more confident. So, strategically, we ‘flipped the script’ with an insight that would connect emotionally with our target audience and motivate them to give cosmetic dermatology a second glance. We crafted an ownable brand position: true beauty is less about how we look to others and more about how we feel about ourselves. The Beauty Clinic by Shoppers is for everybody who wants to feel more beautiful. This was not only a different approach, but the key to breaking through to our core audience who were interested in cosmetic dermatology but hesitant to try them in face of the stigma. This included younger and older women, new moms, and even middle-aged men. And we reached them with surgical precision through a mobile-first, geo-targeted social media campaign.

We produced four scenarios where our hero characters — representing each of our audience segments — are surprised by their own reflection and take a long, confidence-inspiring second look. Our heroes were all regular people doing everyday activities, reinforcing the idea that The Beauty Clinic (and cosmetic dermatology) can be for everyone. An added splash of humour increased engagement, while also helping us stand out in the category.

To deliver on our objectives, we focused on Facebook and Instagram to take advantage of both interest-based (beauty, wellness, category-specific) and geographic targeting within a 18km radius of The Beauty Clinic’s two locations. This also gave us the ability to create remarketing pools, optimize creative, and leverage native lead forms to drive conversions.

The two phases of execution:

1. Launch (Jul 11–?Aug 8, 2019): generating brand awareness

2. Nurture & Grow (Sep 20–?Dec 31, 2019): building engagement and consideration to generate leads

The campaign achieved striking results.

First, consumers noticed. We served over 8.3MM impressions to over 1.8MM unique consumers within 18km of each clinic. While slightly short of our reach goal, we exceeded our view rate goals — a critical measure of engagement. Campaign video view rates (measured at 50% views) reached 17%, for over 1.2MM views! Consumers weren't just taking a peek – they were stopping and watching.

Second (and most importantly), consumers acted. Our engaging and relevant content drove a link click rate of 17% above our campaign goal. And the velocity of leads increased with 2x our expectation by the end of the campaign.

We successfully launched a brand with a unique message in a busy but monolithic category, and successfully converted new leads for The Beauty Clinic by Shoppers. And best of all, we gave our audience permission to give themselves a second