HOW TO REACT TO A GLOBAL PANDEMIC? CHANGE THE RULE BOOK

Lockdowns, staying home, increased handwashing, and sanitizing became the norm in 2020.

As a result, beauty brands suffered a significant decline, giving skincare even more importance and meaning. Now, it was on skincare brands to quickly respond. Being fast and able to pivot was never more critical – and that was what we did. In February, there were no existing ideas or campaigns prepared for what was to come. So, we changed the rule book to completely rethink ongoing campaigns to create COVID-19 relevant storytelling and assets. Simultaneously, we formulated a new ‘science-first, expert-led’ content concept that Johnson & Johnsons’ skin health brands Neutrogena and Aveeno could leverage to enter a conversation with consumers across Southeast Asia staying relevant and sensitive to their new reality.

SKIN HEALTH IN THE NEW NORMAL: “MASKNE BECOMES A THING”

As early as February 2020, we observed new social behaviors brought on by COVID-19: spending more time at home, increased mask-wearing, sanitization, and hand washing. These new behaviors brought on new challenges for her skin. She faced new kinds of breakouts and skin irritation due to mask-wearing (also known as maskne), and dry, irritated skin due to over-washing and sanitizing. Spending more time at home, she started noticing the effects of indoor pollution on her skin. We knew she had questions, but no one provided credible, science-backed answers. We arrested her attention by giving her what she needs – answers to her new skin challenges! We focused on establishing solutions and routines for a post-pandemic, new normal world. The idea of NEW NORMAL, NEW SKIN CHALLENGES was born, inspiring a series of assets and activations.

SKIN HEALTH: THE NEW NORMAL FOR THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY

In times of a global pandemic, where health was most important, our consumer needed simple yet credible information on her skin. With this insight, we leveraged Johnson & Johnsons’ skin health credentials, heritage and experts to engage her with content that educated and entertained.

1) REFRESHED MESSAGING AND CLAIMS

We generated New Normal relevant messaging and claims for a suite of products together with client R&D teams to achieve timeliness and relevance.

2) INFORMATIVE AND CREDIBLE, YET RELATABLE STORIES VIA INFLUENCERS, DERMATOLOGISTS, AND SCIENCE EXPERTS

Leveraging the right mix of voices, we worked with influencers who asked consumer questions/shared their own experience. We engaged external dermatologists as trusted voices while J&J experts credentialed products' science/efficacy.

3) DIGESTIBLE SCIENCE SHE CAN TRUST AND ACTION IN REAL LIFE

Finally, we condensed our expertise into science-first, bite-sized skincare hacks that were simple and credible.

FIRST TO ENTER MASKNE CONVERSATION IN ASIA

Observing increased mask-wearing since February, we leveraged an ongoing influencer shoot to capture additional assets reflecting the ‘new normal’, and entered April’s maskne conversation.

SCIENCE-LED VIDEOS WITH ACTIONABLE TIPS

In June, we addressed skin irritation/redness from prolonged mask-wearing with bite-sized science videos explaining product efficacy and hacks (hand cream for your face!).

LIVESTREAMS TO DISCUSS NEW SKIN CHALLENGES/SHARE SOLUTIONS

Together with an influencer, dermatologist, and J&J R&D, we engaged her with shopper messages, tips and introduced Neutrogena products via our livestream.

EXPERT Q&A ON NEW NORMAL SKIN CHALLENGES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Anticipating her journey to our social media pages, we created Lab Chats - Instagram stories Q&A featuring J&J experts.

REFRESHING E-COMMERCE WITH NEW NORMAL SKINCARE PRODUCT MESSAGES

Finally, we refreshed the brands’ product-display-pages on e-commerce to highlight products for her concerns/consideration.

NEW NORMAL, NEW OPPORTUNITIES, NEW SUCCESSES

Our campaign successfully engaged our target audience on the topic of skin health and new normal skin challenges, reaching over 4 million unique viewers across Southeast Asia. The engagement rate of interactive assets on Instagram Stories performed 5x above average, with a record of 22.27% against a benchmark of 4%, and livestream events garnered over 200,000 viewers.

Through e-Commerce livestreams, we achieved a 10-fold increase in sales compared to the daily average - $250K in sales within 24 hours of one session. Refreshed social assets and product display pages also led to a 312% growth in visitors on e-commerce homepages.

In Singapore, Nielsen SEA YTD June 2020 reported a +11.7% growth in sales for the Neutrogena Face category. Neutrogena Singapore’s market share grew ahead of the category by 7.6%, beating competitors. By engaging consumers with a compelling story and relevant hooks and messaging in the context of the new normal reality, we achieved our business target with an ROI of 4:1 (sales achievement versus budget spent).