It’s not often that a film studio is built from the ground up with a single mission: save lives. It’s even rarer to achieve that goal with the first production. Yet that’s exactly what Neutrogena sought to accomplish as it saw U.S. skin cancer rates remain prevalent and traditional ads/PSAs fail to shift consumer behaviors to improve preventative care.

We were charged with the goal of spreading awareness about sun safety by driving viewership around its life-saving first production.

Further, as part of the brand’s new platform to help “All People With Skin,” Neutrogena’s goal was to reach a diverse audience of all ages, skin types, tones and ethnicities—while also penetrating a younger audience, and groups with the misconception that darker skin tones cannot develop skin cancer, such as African-Americans.

Enter Neutrogena Studios and its first-ever film, “In the Sun” – a 37-minute unbranded documentary that interwove tales of regret and missed opportunities with signs of hope as it told the stories of seven individuals on their skin health journeys. The real-life stories provided personal perspective to skin cancer statistics and was a bold step in a new direction to establish an emotional connection (via the silver screen, not advertising) with people of all ages and ethnicities to improve their sun safety efforts.

To ensure the content produced was both captivating and motivating, and reached various audiences, Neutrogena leveraged multiple partners with different areas of expertise:

• Longtime Neutrogena brand ambassador Kerry Washington executive produced the film and shared it with her followers.

• Skin health partners Melanoma Research Foundation and American Academy of Dermatology provided key data to help combat skin health misconceptions.

There is low awareness around how applying sunscreen daily prevents cancer. In fact, a pre-launch study showed:

• The film changed 85% of viewers’ perception of skin cancer, making them likely to self-examine their skin.

• The amount of Black or African American viewers who knew people with dark skin could die from skin cancer increased by 43.9% after watching the film.

• Further, 92% of teachers said it was a great way to start a dialogue with students.

Neutrogena sought to drive consumers to get their skin checked and wear sunscreen leveraging:

• Executive Producer Kerry Washington to reach African Americans and a wide lifestyle audience through social and earned media.

• Beauty influencers and a school screening program to reach younger viewers and students.

• Skin health organizations (e.g. AAD) to educate the industry about common misconceptions.

• Tribeca Film Festival to share the film with movie lovers.

In April 2021, the team introduced Neutrogena Studios and established it as a new leader in entertainment with the mission to deliver life-saving content by landing coverage in key trade ad/marketing outlets.

From there, focus shifted to consumer awareness. Executive Producer Kerry Washington posted supportive messages on social and premiered the trailer for “In the Sun” on Instagram. Then, the team conducted 1-1 interviews with entertainment and lifestyle outlets—Allure, Parade, Women’s Health and People.com—that published on the film’s premiere date, April 27, driving readers to watch. Finally, the brand premiered the film to the public at Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) in NYC.

To further amplify the film’s reach, “In the Sun” was lived on YouTube, Vimeo, Google Play and Apply TV. It was also submitted to dozens of festivals, shared via diverse influencers across social platforms and viewed in classrooms nationwide through a school screening program.

All metrics pointed toward a highly compelling film, buoyed by a highly effective communications campaign:

• In total, the film’s release was covered by more than 40 entertainment, lifestyle and beauty publications, including Variety, Allure, and People.

• “In the Sun” delivered the highest ROI of any digital video campaign Neutrogena ran in 2021.

• The film was viewed more than 8.2 million times on YouTube, was an Official Selection at 14 film festivals and won Best Environmental Short Documentary at the Seattle Film Festival.

• Content on the brand’s owned social channels yielded 53.6K social media impressions, and influencer partnerships drove 649K video views from 26 posts.

• “In the Sun” helped turn around the sun care business. Despite no branded products shown, the film helped make Q2 2021 Neutrogena’s Sun category’s highest-selling and fastest-growing second quarter in the last five years.

It also helped move the needle for partners like Walgreens, who incorporated the film to train more than 3,000 Walgreens beauty advisors on skin cancer prevention.

While the ultimate measure of success – lives saved – may never be known, Neutrogena saw ample evidence that “In the Sun” contributed to this noble cause … and that future Neutrogena Studios productions can continue to build on this positive momentum.