Head & Shoulders (H&S) is the #1 anti-dandruff shampoo globally. But in Indonesia, it was a mere challenger brand. “Clear”, owned by Unilever, sells 55% more bottles of shampoo.

This was despite heavy marketing investment using the same techniques that have elevated H&S to leadership around the world.

When we analysed sales data, we realised that H&S was doing well in the large retail stores, but not in "Warung", the small Mom & Pop shops (independent, usually family-owned businesses) that make up 50% of sales in the hair care category.

How to steal the anti dandruff leadership from Clear - a legendary brand that has been more than 40 years in Indonesia, in this market?

Why the marketing strategy and techniques that works around the world for H&S doesn't seem to be working for Indonesian market?

CALL US WHAT YOU WANT

As a brand that has always been about building confidence, we want to eliminate the worry of pronouncing our brand name wrong. We told Indonesia to say "Head & Shoulders" Proudly! We gave permission to mispronounce our brand name, indeed we encouraged it! Say it any way you want to, because regardless of how you pronounce our name, H&S removes 100% of dandruff.

For the first time in Head & Shoulders’ 59-year global history, we encouraged people to mispronounce our brand name!

We celebrated the struggle many Indonesians face in pronouncing our brand, from releasing online bloopers clip of our brand ambassador (international actor - Joe Taslim) to producing 300 + versions of shampoo bottle carrying different versions of the Head & Shoulders name – based on the way Indonesians actually pronounce it.

A celebration of cultural differences in Indonesia.

Indonesia is a highly collective society. People don’t want to stand out and be embarrassed by their inability to pronounce an English language brand name (not knowing English well is a mark of shame).

As a brand that prides itself on building self-confidence, we were unknowingly causing insecurity and doubt.

So we gave permission to Indonesians to mispronounce our brand name, indeed we encouraged it! “Say It Proud”.

We created a campaign that speak to the heart of Indonesians using humor and cultural messaging, tackling people’s fears and letting them own their difference.

TV and digital would be used to build mass awareness and then we boost the conversation on social media, which represents 90% of Indonesian digital usage.

With Indonesia's 700+ languages and dialect, social media became a place for people to show off their differences, proudly.

This is a celebration of Indonesia's cultural diversity.

First, we celebrated the struggle many Indonesians face in pronouncing our brand by releasing an online bloopers clip of our brand ambassador, international actor Joe Taslim (who expected to be fluent in english), mispronouncing our brand name so many times during a TV commercial shoot.

User-generated content from consumers, influencers, and even other brands creating their own versions of miss pronouncing added hundreds of millions more impressions and counting!

We celebrated our 700 languages and dialects with TV messages featuring consumers offering their own version of the H&S brand name, as well as locally-customised regional radio spots.

We even produced more than 300 versions of shampoo packs carrying different versions of the Head & Shoulders name – based on the way Indonesians actually pronounce it.

In Indonesian Independence Day when the country celebrates its heritage & 700 different languages, further emphasis the sense of pride that runs through the campaign.

For the first time, H&S topped the 10% market share, hit highest ever share and Sales grew by a whopping +20% - ahead of the category by +17%. H&S took over anti-dandruff category leadership from Clear in Modern Trade – while Clear losing share by 20 Basis Points (Nielsen).

H&S became the fastest-growing brand in Mom & Pops shops. Grew users by +9%, adding 1,900,000 Household users.

Our bloopers video went viral with a total 18M views during the three-month campaign.

The campaign received overwhelming coverage from 50 online articles and event featured in news on CNN and GTV, part of the country’s biggest TV and media network, all for free.

The campaign reached 114 million people nationwide with more than 675 million impressions in 3 months.

Search volumes grew +36% compared to the previous quarter with more than half of the search coming from mispronounced brand names.