How does CeraVe, a clinical skincare brand developed by dermatologists, become a global cultural phenomenon? By creating an internet conspiracy that the brand was actually created by actor Michael Cera. But Michael isn't on social media. So we orchestrated a plan to put audiences at the center and made our branded content that felt like culture, not advertising. Which made each piece unskippable (even though it was about skincare!). For four-weeks, we were all over culture. While most Super Bowl commercials are the hero, ours was the culmination of a worldwide conversation with 15.4B impressions BEFORE the spot even aired.

Skincare Context: CeraVe is a clinical skincare brand developed by dermatologists. But more and more celebrities are entering the skincare space, exceeding $1B in beauty sales in 2023 (Nielsen). And competitors are copying CeraVe’s claims about being developed with derms and having three ceramides)

Celebrity Context: Michael Cera is a cult favorite actor known for Juno, Arrested Development, and “Allan” in Barbie. He plays unassuming, awkward and lovable characters. Cera doesn’t fit the typical beauty spokesperson (Rihana, Selena Gomez...) or have any social media. But his famously youthful face, shared name with CeraVe, and mild manner made him the perfect unexpected antagonist to get everyone talking.

Super Bowl Context: CeraVe has a niche audience on TikTok. The Super Bowl provided a unique opportunity to bring it to the masses.

CeraVe is the #1 dermatologist-recommended skincare brand in the US. But competitors were stealing CeraVe's core claim that they are developed by Dermatologists.

So CeraVe was headed to its first ever Super Bowl to (1) mint CeraVe as THE brand developed with Dermatologists and (2) elevate CeraVe from a cult, niche social following into a cultural phenomenon all around the world.

But people watching the Super Bowl want celebrities and comedy. Not dermatologists and ceramides. And CeraVe wanted to become a cultural icon without compromising their core values.

To achieve this, CeraVe set the following KPIs: 1B impressions, 50 articles, 74k website traffic, +3% audience growth, and Top 10 share of voice during the game.

(All of which the campaign achieved and then some).

CeraVe has a niche, cult following on TikTok. But the core consumer base was 78% women, average age 40+. To become a cultural icon, CeraVe wanted to grow the audience to have mass appeal including Gen Z and men– while still appealing to their base consumer.

Our strategic insight was that Dermatologists are the celebrities of CeraVe, NOT a celebrity A-List spokesperson.

With Michael not on social, and the brand committing to the conspiracy, we needed to rethink out media approach. We decided to create a fully-immersive storytelling experience using a 360-media approach (from PR to social, influencer-channels to owned channels...) to really bring audiences into the story. For an entire month, the skincare conspiracy was at the center of culture. In doing so, we made the Super Bowl commercial the punchline to the campaign, rather than the traditional hero.

A traditional campaign about dermatologists and ceramides would be ignored. We needed a way to use a celebrity while hero'ing dermatologists. So we created a conspiracy that CeraVe was developed by Michael Cera.

This breakthrough idea was risky– especially for a quiet skincare brand. We couldn’t even promote that CeraVe was in the Super Bowl. On top of that, Michael Cera has no social presence.

So we re-wrote the traditional media playbook. We created a four-week first-of-its-kind conspiracy. We made influencer-first branded content that built upon itself, like a good TV show rather than advertising. Each piece was native to that influencer and channel, while escalating the conspiracy. And the whole immersive experience made our audience central to piecing it all together. While most brands pray consumers will watch a :30-second ad, we effectively kept CeraVe at the top of culture for an entire month resulting in 32B earned impressions.

Our conspiracy started 4-weeks prior to the Super Bowl. It rolled out over three acts: (1) fake news campaign (2) fight between Cera and CeraVe (3) a Big Game resolution .

We started with influencer @HayleeBaylee "spotted" Cera signing CeraVe bottles. Then we "leaked" paparazzi photos (covering in Daily Mail / Page 6). Cera sent out "bootlegged" PR boxes. He walked off an interview with Bobbi Althoff. Then, the brand jumped in and used its social channels to fight back. At every step, the audience journey was at the center of it all connecting and sharing all the pieces.

Publications and participants wondered if Cera was a "cream genius". For a month, media kept the skincare conspiracy at the top of pop culture. The Super Bowl commercial was the culmination of the "Ultra prolonged ultra meta campaign" (NYTimes), settling things in front of a record-setting audience, resulting in 32B impressions.

Overall objective: Elevate CeraVe to the status of cultural icon.

Result: #1 SB Campaign (GQ, Forbes, Adweek, Adage)

Result: Most moisturizer sales in CeraVe history (*for one-week)

Goal: 1B earned impressions

Result: 32B earned impressions (15.4B BEFORE the Super Bowl)

Goal: 50 articles

Result: 2K+ articles

Goal: Top 10 share of voice (based on earned engagement during game)

Result: #1 share of voice

Result: 2.4X amount of engagements of all other health and beauty brands in the Super Bowl… COMBINED!

Goal: Most talked about brand on social

Result: #1 most effective brand on tiktok (David), trended on X / Tiktok, Reddit front page, highest ever performing brand meme on FJerry

Result: 400+ organic influencers

Goal: +3% audience growth

Result: +5% audience growth (“Dammit it worked…I’ll go pick up a bottle” – @huhzonked)

The month-long “ultra-meta, multipronged campaign” (NYTimes) was hailed as a “masterclass” (Adweek).