Hair beauty brand ghd, launched in South Africa five years ago, has rapidly achieved cult status among a growing group of consumers.

ghd’s PR agency was tasked to create a campaign to entrench ghd’s style leader status, educate consumers on its wider range of hair styling products and build a consumer database for future activity. A creative concept was developed to create secret hair salons in three cities – each held for one day only. Information on these exclusive pop-up hair salons was driven mainly through editorial coverage and online social media tools which created a feverish demand for exclusive invitations.

The results were exceptional media coverage of 1.5 million rands over a two month period and the mobilisation of a core group of ghd loyalists who spread the word about the campaign. This resulted in a sales spike over November and December 2008.

Website:A blog format microsite was developed to provide a sign-up mechanism for the events and to communicate key messages. The site included a video blog, teaser information on the upcoming secret locations, as well as photography and videos of the activity on the day. Media relations:An intensive media relations campaign was initiated to drive visits to the site and the angle of ‘first of its kind’ in the country was used as an effective hook to achieve widespread editorial brand building coverage.

Events:The events were held in carefully selected art gallery spaces in the three target cities, on the cusp of the traditional party season in South Africa (November and December 2008). Attendance for consumers was secured via an online competition on the ghd style lounge website to which all editorial media were directed. Each one-day event was designed so as to ensure an intimate styling experience for groups of ten people at a time. During the latter part of the afternoon, select fashion, beauty and lifestyle media, as well style-leading celebrities attended.

The social media and traditional media relations campaign which supported the ghd style lounge created substantial editorial coverage to the value of R1.5 million to date. However, the massive word-of-mouth interest also led to the following business successes: • 10,000 visits to the specially created website;• 4,000 registration to attend the three events;• 700 Facebook members within two months• Strong increase in sales over the November and December 2008 sales period.