Maybelline sought to win over the younger generation of Vietnamese consumers, as market competition was heating up. With the additional negative sales impact of the pandemic, the brand knew it had to channel Gen Z's resilience to make itself more relevant, and become young consumers' top choice make-up brand.

In response, Maybelline launched a daring, bold, and confident new brand image, to reflect its target audience's style. To build reach and enhance brand meaningfulness among Gen-Z consumers, Maybelline targeted two must-win associations: “Help women look more fashionable” and “The brand that shows me how to makeup.” And to encourage trials, the brand released two hero products: SuperStay Liquid Foundation and SuperStay Matte Ink Liquid Lipstick - the No.1 Long Wear Franchise Worldwide.

Now, Maybelline needed some creative inspiration to kick off its campaign, and grab the attention of its Gen-Z target audience.

Gen Z are fiercely independent, digital natives, and mobile-first consumers. This resilient generation fights hard for their place in the world. With the campaign hashtag #Mấybélì, Maybelline used a mnemonic pun, resembling its brand name, to join young females' fight to change their role in traditional Vietnamese society.

Badly behaved Vietnamese children are described as "lì". The #Mấybélì campaign re-defined "lì" as not simply disobedient, but purposefully noncompliant with social or gender limitations. "Lì" also means long-lasting, mirroring the USP of the SuperStay make-up range, placing Maybelline into the story.

The campaign's creative idea centered on this wordplay to connect the brand with young Vietnamese women's resilient self-determination. #Mấybélì is a powerful statement of women's right and power to run their own lives, and empowers the "Lì" generation to live beautiful-lì, girl-lì, and love-lì (beautifully, girly, and lovely), on their own terms.

In 2020, rap culture made a huge come-back among Vietnam's Gen Z. But again, women struggled to find their voice in a heavily male-dominated space. The #Mấybélì campaign gave female artists the spotlight they deserve, and celebrated their fearlessness.

Maybelline partnered with three infamous Gen-Z KOLs to create an original rap music video: Tlinh (rapper), Yenji (make-up influencer), and Naomi (fashionista). The viral video first launched on YouTube, then Maybelline leveraged TikTok, the digital home of fearless Gen-Z women, as the platform of choice for promoting and extending the campaign online.

The passionate TikTok community jumped at the chance to try on Maybelline's SuperStay products virtually via a related Hashtag Challenge and AR Branded Effects. With the addition of full-funnel ads on TikTok, the campaign created a significant halo effect via the rap/hip-hop trend, and guided users toward e-commerce sites.

The music video was adapted into mobile-friendly ads, enhancing the user experience and attracting audiences on platforms such as TikTok, which offer high penetration and time spent.

Overall the #Mấybélì TikTok campaign followed three phases:

- Phase 1: Raise awareness/curiosity, build mass reach, and engage with Gen Z via a viral Hashtag Challenge using #Mấybélì's AR Branded Effect. The platform's hottest creators got the ball rolling, and TikTok's full-funnel ad solutions provided amplification.

- Phase 2: Boost education and consideration with authentic conversation and conversion driven via community commerce Shoppertainment on TikTok. Creators reviewed, spread awareness, and showcased products' functionality with the supporting #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt hashtag.

- Phase 3: Ramp up the education, with full make-up steps tutorial content and ads retargeting, to move audiences from the Hashtag Challenge through to e-commerce, driving sales.

- Maybelline saw a full-funnel campaign impact, from awareness through to brand loyalty, based on post-campaign data:

- Spontaneous awareness rose from 35% to 44%

- The trial rate among Gen-Z customers rose from 75% to 82%

- Regular usage rose from 38% to 54%

- The campaign boosted the meaningfulness of key brand associations:

- “Help women look more fashionable" rose 11 points or 129%

- “Brand that shows me how to makeup” rose 9 points or 124%

- And drove record sales for the Super Stay Franchise:

- Run rate Q1 was 150% higher than target

- April 2020 sales rose 1,635% year-on-year

- SuperStay Foundation became the No.1 SKU for the entire face category on Shopee Mall in 3 months

- With a profound halo effect on the entire Maybelline brand:

- Run rate Q1 was 85% higher than target

- April 2020 sales rose 352% year-on-year