Advertising for hair care products is a competition of product innovations, superlatives, and marketing terms. Nowadays, every shampoo needs to have benefits like 3-in-1, anti-dandruff, sensitivity, moisturizing, sea minerals, organic ingredients, and even more. An excellent opportunity for satire: "Der Postillon," the best-known satire website in Germany, therefore made up the "Shampoo ohne Schnickschnack" (shampoo without bullshit). Which simply cleans the goddamn hair and nothing else. In a post on their website and social media channels they pretended, that Schwarzkopf finally came up with the "Shampoo without Bullshit." A post that got thousands of reactions and, of course, got the attention of Schwarzkopf as well. We were asked to think of a quick reaction that turns a joke into positive PR or even more.

The idea was quite simple: Let's produce the "Shampoo without Bullshit" for real and that as fast as possible. That way, Schwarzkopf will gain lots of PR and sympathy. And on top even sell products. The implementation was a challenge, but Schwarzkopf made every effort and produced the first batch in less than 24 hours.

Our strategy was to simply turn the tables and show the community that we not only understand fun but are also quite capable of quickly responding to the wishes of our customers. And that as a global corporation, which usually needs at least one year to realize a product idea. The quick response via social media channels should also serve for a modern and positive brand perception.

In less than 24 hours, Schwarzkopf replied to the satirical post of "Der Postillion" on Facebook and Twitter. In a video post, the CMO of Henkel Beauty & Schwarzkopf announced the product launch of "Shampoo without Bullshit." He talked about the product, thanked "Der Postillion" for that great idea, and informed the people that they can get the shampoo now online. In that way, Schwarzkopf turned the joke into an actual product and lots of PR.

The first batch (1600 bottles) produced in less than 24 hours was sold out online in a matter of hours. Furthermore, Germany's most prominent retailers wanted to order the product. So, production was ramped up to supply even more "Shampoo without Bullshit."

Results:

Fastest product launch in company history since 1898. From idea to production in less than 24h. Google Trending Topic. Social media reach: >11 million. Print and online media reach: >4 million with more than 70 articles.