Background

Eskinol is known to be the pioneer of Facial Care in the Philippines and has been a trusted brand since its market launch in 1945. Though it remains the market leader among deep cleansers today, Eskinol has been greatly challenged by a changing landscape and its evolving consumers. The brand has lost shares to previously smaller brands like Nivea and Garnier, both backed by their innovations with an evolved proposition. However, there is still a clear space for Eskinol as the brand has established strong equity primarily for its ability to remove oil/dirt/pimples and secondarily for its natural ingredients. With its economic price point, the launch of Eskinol Naturals is expected to strengthen its value naturals proposition. This is Eskinol’s first innovation in years and is expected to further strengthen the brand’s equity on cleansing and association with natural ingredients, all while still playing in the economy segment.

Describe the creative idea

TAPPING INTO TRENDS AND POP CULTURE Eskinol was challenged with staying relevant and connecting with its audience’s culture and language. While Eskinol has been present in both TV and Digital, showed playfulness online through Gen Z-talk ad copies, created brand-led memes, even briefly rode the Korean Wave, Eskinol did not drive as much relevance versus competitors who are offering new products with exciting formats. TWITTER: THE MAIN CONVERSATIONAL PLATFORM WHERE FANDOMS ABOUND When it comes to fangirl culture, Twitter is an essential platform because of how fast content travels and how easy it is to engage with users with the same interests. Locally, Twitter has been dominated by fandoms for different artists—making it one of the most effective channels when it comes to promoting celebrity partnerships and engaging with fans. Despite a niche market, they are highly susceptible to product recommendations from both their peers and idols’ product endorsements.

Describe the strategy

ESKINOL “GANDANG NATURALLY FRESH” (BEAUTY THAT IS NATURALLY FRESH) TWITTER TAKEOVER Eskinol looked at Twitter as its main campaign platform, recognizing the opportunity for a grassroots approach to ultimately reach its core audience: young Filipina fan girls immersed in pop culture. As it launched the Eskinol Naturals’ Micellar portfolio, the brand partnered with Maris Racal—a local celebrity with a huge following on Twitter (3.5M followers as of January 2022) because of her humorous and relatable tweets. This prompted the brand to revisit Twitter as a platform where it can launch its new product and introduce “Gandang Naturally Fresh” (“Beauty that is naturally fresh”) message through a Twitter takeover: promoted trend, hashflags (branded emoji), story-telling Twitter threads, image carousels, and conversational ads. With these formats, the brand effectively connected with young Filipinas in a fun and exciting way.

Describe the execution

Eskinol relied on the following to drive conversation and awareness for the new product: • Promoted Trends for the announcement of the new Eskinol Naturals with the hashtag #SanaAllWithEskinol (“LuckyYouWithEskinol”) and a branded emoji. Accompanied by a First View Tweet that elaborates more on the product. • Endorser-led sponsored Tweets to increase and supplement engagement alongside brand posts • Image carousel to educate on the new product and its specific benefits. • Conversational Ad with Auto-Responder to get insight on the audiences’ “wishes” or “sana all” for a Twitter fanfiction. • Partnership with a well-known online fanfiction writer to commission an Eskinol-led story based on insights from Conversational Ad; a Twitter thread format was used for the snackable content to ensure continuity and flow within the story. Multiple fan clubs were tapped in support of the endorser’s partnership with Eskinol and supplement paid efforts with organic reach/engagement from the fans.

List the results

The campaign brought about stellar media performance across all metrics: • Total of 41.6M impressions, 384k Engagements • For the launch alone, the brand had 11.M impressions (vs. a 9.59M benchmark) • The launch had an 0.86% Engagement Rate which increased to 2.10% with the brand's use of a First View tweet that introduces the new product. • When it comes to the promoted Endorser tweets, the engagement rate rose to an astounding 15.43% (vs. 0.72% PH CPG benchmark) - showing how more than willing fans are to engage with their idols • Positive lift in brand sentiments during the hashtag trend with 10% positive sentiment before the campaign, climbing up to +80% during flight. Eskinol Naturals has already shown an 8% market value share (Q1 2021) for Micellar Water in just 3-months post-launch and is continuously growing; almost achieving its target FY 10% market value share within three months!