The Brief

To increase the salience of Neutrogena Ultra Sheer sunblock by taking advantage of a very dramatic natural phenomenon that would happen only once in our lifetime, and would be followed by millions around the world — the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century that happened on July 22, 2009.

Creative Execution

At the heart of the idea was SunStopper.sg. During build-up phase, we drove traffic with blogs in two languages that piqued interest with entertaining eclipse information, tweets, 21 virals, on-ground sampling, Facebook fanpage and even unusual methods like flash mobs. As international sites like Facebook and Twitter are sometimes blocked in China, we put up similar content on local Chinese sites. When some local sites faced restriction, we turned our blog into a microblog for the live stream. Finally, as thousands watched SunStopper on July 22, we claimed the eclipse on behalf of Neutrogena Ultra Sheer sunblock.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

The big idea that helped us take advantage of the eclipse: For 6 minutes 39 seconds, the Moon will block and protect you from the Sun. But for the remaining 500,000 minutes, you’ll need Neutrogena Ultra Sheer sunblock to protect yourself from the Sun. We brought the idea to life by creating SunStopper.sg, driving traffic to it for a month, streaming the eclipse live from China, and as thousands watched the live stream, claiming the eclipse for Neutrogena Ultra Sheer. A world’s first. No other brand has ever claimed a live natural phenomenon to dramatise the brand’s benefits.

Results

On the morning of July 22, SunStopper recorded over 10,000 people watching the live stream and Neutrogena’s dramatisation of its protective properties. Consumers from across the world tweeted and uploaded positive responses. Neutrogena also gained brand publicity for aptly claiming a natural phenomenon. Prestigious sites like Notcot and Contagious picked up and spread the story. In a mere one month, SunStopper got 80,789 website pageviews, 32,665 blog hits, 15,929 video views, and built a community of 1,892 fans and followers. Neutrogena recorded brand awareness increase of over 37% among consumers polled. We spent US$9,000. We got US$300,000 worth of PR.