Cannes Lions
BLUEFDIGITAL, Guangzhou / REJOICE / 2022
Overview
Entries
Credits
Background
Beauty should not be for the selected few & unattainable for the rest, Rejoice believes Beauty should be Effortless for ONE and Effortless for ALL. With this belief, the INCLUSIVE Brand Campaign – #ALittleSmoothaLot was born 2 years ago.
We started from caring for rural kids with poor washing facility by building shower room for them to enjoy a hot shower after a long school day, and in the second year, we are determined to make beauty effortless for the Visually Impaired community.
The In-house creative team embarked on a humbling journey of getting to know more about visually-impaired friend and define what can Rejoice do to bring more beauty into their life.
Idea
THE POWER of BEING SEEN
“Flying a kite is like walking my dog in the sky” --- XueYuan, visually impaired stenographer.
Our story unfolds by leading the audience into the imagination of our visually impaired ladies. Through their eyes, we feel the colorful world they create in their mind. Yet there’s always some ignorance pulling them back into the darkness, be it a shop-assistant who cannot tell a guide-dog apart from pets; be it a “helpful” boss asking if a programmer could type…
By telling the real-life stories of 4 visually impaired ladies with diverse career and family life, audience is touched by their beautiful imagination, saddened by the laughable incidents and impressed by their competency in life.
With the stories, we launched the first Accessible Audio Blog to allow more visually impaired friends to tell their stories to share with each other and the broader audience.
Strategy
1 out of 100 Chinese is Visually Impaired, but few brands include them in product design and communications. To be an inspiring and responsible brand, Rejoice must walk the talk by driving below strategies:
1/Development strategy: Develop accessible product, communication and e-commerce platforms with NGO and authorities to design the experience with accurate knowledge on the life & shopping behavior of visually-impaired community.
2/Creative strategy: Focus on driving mindset-shift on top 3 public misconception which can lead to behavior change that helps visually impaired community: (Mis-conception 1- “Visually impaired people don’t get around city alone, no one really uses tactile-paving”; 2- “Guide-dogs are pets hence not allowed in some public area” 3 – Career limitation: “visually impaired people can only be masseuse”;
3/Media strategy: Drive broad awareness and social engagement via both government media, the most popular social media ( Weibo – the Chinese Twitter) and regional visual impaired associations.
Execution
1. Accessible Communication: on Oct. 15th international White Cane Safety Day, we launch the 1st ever accessible brand social campaign in China. People’s Daily held a round table discussion among media, NGO and accessible designers, led by Rejoice #PowerofBeingSeen Campaign, generating social buzz.
2. Accessible Effortless Beauty Product Design: together with the campaign, launched Rejoice Non-Rinse Conditioner with touchable QR code co-developed with visually impaired UI/UX designer to create barrier-free e-platform with both the product instruction and a Podcast platform to share their stories.
3. Accessible Shopping Experience: Renovated brand content to narrative version on e-commerce platform with barrier-free beauty consultation to enable smooth shopping experience accessible to all.
Outcome
Generated widespread public awareness and participation while made the “force-for-good” campaign a “force-for-growth” for the brand.
Social Impact:
1/Ranked top 5 HOT-TOPIC on WEIBO (Chinese Tweeter) with over 2.3 Billion impression; over 200MM+ topic viewership and over 23M+ comments; forwarded by 68 mainstream media (e.g People’s Daily)
2/ Over 5 visually impaired communities across China deeply engaged in this programs and acknowledged the first accessible product & social content in China and the first non-rinse conditioner with accessible communication on packaging and e-platform.
Business impact:
1/ 1.6MM consumers started to use Rejoice Non-Rinse Conditioner ( hero product of the campaign )
2/ 87% of New to brand users are attracted by this product campaign
3/ “Effortless Beauty” brand equity consistently grow during last year and ranked No.1 among China Hair Brand