The Campaign

For VS Sassoon, hair and fashion are inextricably linked, reflecting the prevailing zeitgeist. But the brand’s newest pre-styling products – a heat protector mist and a platinum finishing oil – were unfamiliar products to Hong Kong women. They needed education to understand the benefits of these new ‘third step’ products to achieve the latest looks – particularly the season’s hottest trend: the VS Sassoon sharp line hair cut. The target: “beauty junkies,” Hong Kong’s consumer fashionistas.The strategy: dramatize the brand’s fashion leadership by leveraging two trusted high profile influencers -- Pius, a VS academy trained and top tier Greater China celebrity stylist, and Stefanie Sun, Asian superstar. The main event: an exclusive media masterclass for VIP media and bloggers to witness the unveiling of Stefanie’s new sharp line look and the live on-stage product demonstrations by Pius and his team. The exclusive invitation-only event ignited a firestorm of media coverage and Twitter– including 20,000 tweet and retweets on Sina Weibo - in turn attracting 3,320 new Facebook fans and rocketing the brand to an unprecedented 39% share of category voice. The “sharp line” and new pre-styling products sharply took off.

The Brief

Turn heads, get lots of looks The VS Sassoon sharp line campaign had to launch a hot new hair style trend and build demand and brand equity for a whole new breed of styling products. Field research in the malls identified the ideal strategic consumer target and their mindset: the fashionable end-look seekers, or aka “the beauty junkies,” who want to be noticed and see themselves as fashion and trend leaders.Yet hair manageability issues often prevent them from getting the look they want. The campaign had to educate them, but first it would have to impress them in a big way.

Results

Fashionable Results: Everybody’s Talking The VS Sassoon sharp line masterclass was a tremendous success. Leveraging our celebrities, we achieved an unprecedented number of front cover stories plus:  18 top tier fashion and style media attended  Three front-page cover stories:More, Fashion & Beauty,and ME  Achieved impressive 39% share of voice during launch month– far more than rivalsL’oreal and Shiseido  20,000 tweets and retweets in just one day on Sina Weibo  20 major stories ran in key niche media and beauty blogs within the month with total coverage to date at 49  New Facebook content combined with media coverage attracted 3,320 new fans within 14 days PLUS, strong media feedback: Queenie Wong, Cosmopolitan: ‘A really creative use of celebrity to launch a new product’ Kaman, beauty blogger: ‘It is really interesting seeing hair stylists cutting sharp lines in front of us, I enjoyed the event very much.’

Execution

You’re Invited to a Masterclass The VS Sassoon Sharp Line Masterclass was a highly anticipated one-day event held at the legendary fashion space Armani Prive in central Hong Kong. Excitement within the beauty media and blogger community was fueled by the announcement that celebrity hairstylist, Pius, would create dramatic new “sharp line looks” live, on stage, with the new products. Asian superstar Stefanie Sun was signed as the hair model for the campaign, and Pius took her hair from long and wavy to uber short and sharp. Post-event, Stefanie’s new look was celebrated through the media via fashion shoot images, a “behind the scenes” video demonstrating the sharp line look, and high profile media interviews with Stefanie and Pius. At every step, electrifying drama and excitement were created, product information was delivered creatively and effectively. As a result, brand equity shot up in a sharp line .

The Situation

Looking Sharp, VS Sassoon Style VS Sassoon may need no introduction, but the fashion leader in hair design was a newcomer on the scene in Hong Kong when it came to introducing its new, unfamiliar “third step” pre-styling products to a market of women that had no clue what to do with them.We had to draw a “sharp line” in the fashion scene overnight. The challenge: quickly educate the market and create instantaneous excitement around a new look and approach to hair styling. We needed a bold strategy to drive engagement and conversation among top style influencers and creatively demonstrate the new products’ many advantages.

The Strategy

Do it big. Do it in style. Our campaign strategy focused on dramatizing the brand’s fashion and professional expertise by leveraging two credible celebrities in the field. Given the audience of ‘beauty junkies,’ media outreach had to be niche, not mass. Specifically we needed to target influencers and create demand for the sharp line look by presenting it as the season’s hottest hair trend from VS --achievable only by ‘taking a third step’ and using the new pre-styling products. The aim? Quality coverage over quantity. The beauty junkies would need to be educated around prepping and usage. That education would be most exciting delivered by famous ambassadors of style. Fashion analogies were used to resonate with both the media and the target audience, and top name fashion influencers were enlisted. And to really do it in style and achieve the depth of message needed to educate the three-step process, the launch event needed to be a show-stopper.