The Campaign

Women have grown jaded about promises of hair products, especially those with damage repair promises. Product demos on hair strength all have the same formula, the same imagery. As a result, traditional ads depicting ‘strong hair’ have since lost their power to convince. The hair category needed a shake-up. A new image was needed for tired product demonstrations on hair strength – something the public could talk about. So we staged a concert with the world’s first Human Hair Quartet – playing with bows replaced with human hair (conditioned and strengthened with Creamsilk), instead of traditional horsehair, which was known to be stronger. Within a week, it captured the world’s attention with 60 million impressions on social media and generated conversations on Twitter, “I can’t believe they did it!” Never before had strong hair seen such publicity.

The Brief

Our target were women between 25-29 years who saw beautiful hair not just as an ornament – but an instrument to get what she wants. Objectives: Generate awareness and drive positive conversations about the brand. Reinforce Creamsilk’s leading reputation in the market as the conditioner that boosts her beauty and self-confidence.

Results

The Hair Quartet content was viewed by hundreds of millions worldwide. Within a week of the launch, Creamsilk Facebook got 12,000 fans, with engagement peaking at 180%. Social media networks, news networks and video blogs picked up the online content, delivering $20m+ in unearned media coverage. The concert itself drew 60 million impressions on social media to date. It became the #1 most shared campaign on Creativity online for the month of June. Post-campaign trial rate increased by 17%, and firmly entrenching Creamsilk’s market position as #1 conditioner in the Philippines. 25.7% of female users who signed up for sampling trials were first-time users of Creamsilk; convinced by the live demonstration of strong hair. It created conversation: 60% of the mentions were ranked as positive for the brand, 10% as negative.

Execution

We first approached Asia’s only bowmaker, Paul Goh, with a unique request: to rehair traditional violin bows using human hair strengthened by Creamsilk. Then we invited Manila’s leading string quartet to stage a once-in-a-lifetime performance with these bows. A month prior, we seeded a teaser video on Youtube, ‘What if strong hair could be heard?’ to kickstart conversations about ‘Asia’s First Human Hair Concert’ on April 15. Within days, the teaser video garnered 500,000 hits. The concert held at Manila’s largest mall – SM Megamalls, drew mega crowds. The quartet played 40 songs over 4 sets in a concert that lasted close to 3 hours. The concert itself was covered by Filipino bloggers and shared extensively online. Post-concert – the world sat up to listen. The video drew attention from classical music fans, beauty blogs, innovation & design magazines and entertainment video blogs in a nod towards its “crazy creativity.”

The Situation

Creamsilk, an established household brand since the 80s, needed a fresh approach to reach out to the jaded Filipino woman. Women who have grown jaded about promises of hair products, especially those with damage repair promises. Traditional product demos about hair strength have all been the same over the years: a woman tugging a lock of her hair. Damage repair to hair needed a fresh image. One that Filipino women could strike a chord with.

The Strategy

The strategy was to reject every single norm found in the world of product demos. Traditional ways of haircare advertising created the opportunity: What if we could find a way of demonstrating strong hair that not only broke all the rules, but had the potential to entertain? In a musically-inclined country like the Philippines, the solution was obvious: music.