Insight
In a market still struggling with the effects of the recession and the challenges that come along with media measurements and targeting in the beauty category, Garnier was looking at innovative digital options focused on content that allow the brand to optimise its message across Puerto Rico and deliver specific product education with a retail twist.
Puerto Rico is a value market – where for over 10 years, the value brand which is always more affordable, is the standard purchase choice. Garnier is considered a premium brand on the island therefore the strategy had to include educating consumers about the significance of purchasing Garnier vs. value brands and how said investment benefits them.
According to Weatherspark.com, the average person spends 75% more time outdoors during the summer months than other season. Any Puerto Rican woman who’s ever spent time styling their hair on a hot, humid or rainy day can tell you firsthand that heat and humidity can ruin a hairstyle and/or a healthy hair.
Eager to reach women ages 18 – 34 in a social native mobile setting (82% online penetration), Garnier needed to inspire product trial and subsequently upturn tangible conversions for its hair care category.
And because 600K women are attached to Facebook everyday and 94% consuming ads (Source: Facebook Insights) and content through their smartphones (70% online penetration) – Garnier knew it was the perfect channel to reach and remind them (frequency) to protect their hair from summer’s rebellious weather with it’s essential hair care products, Fructis.
Strategy
By moving haircare communication from exciting to functional, Garnier had a powerful reason to talk directly to its target.
McCann’s Beauty Team in San Juan and the UM staff saw this as the perfect opportunity to listen to its core target and recognise that seizing customer education at the right moment makes a lasting impact compared to reaching a mass market. With this in mind Garnier, set its goal to deliver its haircare promise - get healthier, stronger, and shinier hair.
UM's strategy was to create weather-optimised content ads, a fundamental automation protocol that changed creative depending on the type of weather the users will experience in their location.
Focused on business solutions rather than branding, the main emphasis was to help women make educated product purchase decisions at the point of sale during the summer months. Other channels like TV or print would not allow it to adapt as weather changed in real-time.
This would help consumers arrange for radical climate changes and stay one step ahead of a bad hair day while cultivating trustworthiness and reliance regarding Garnier Fructis.
Execution
By combining mobile’s power to do location targeting using global positioning system (GPS) and pulling real-time weather information from the accuweather.com application program interface, UM developed weather triggers by adjusting a set of procedures with three different messages to support rainy, cloudy and sunny environments. Each with a creative reminder to protect your hair by highlighting a specific Fructis benefit against the weather forecast.
Facebook’s geo-targeting capabilities allowed Garnier to divide the island in four major areas by online penetration and focus on each environment. By doing it this way the agency was proficient enough to reach its core target audience, while the weather-triggers enabled the brand to link the most appropriate ad to user segments.
In executing the campaign, three types of optimisation techniques were leveraged (1) CTR optimisation (focused on creative A/B testing), (2) targeting optimisation (demographic, interests and location) and (3) frequency optimisation (day and time).
Content ads that resulted in higher click-through-rate replaced the ones that did not perform as well. The campaign ran 100% in Facebook mobile inventory where visitors have historically shown higher receptiveness and strengthening Garnier’s brand goals, mobile first.
Results
The campaign thrived in achieving the target metrics with a 70% target coverage, while exceeding the target click-through-rate average (YoY) of 0.7% with an outstanding 3.2% CTR.
The total number of impressions exceeded 1.7 million, over 52% of overall consumption and interactions with a community increase of 20%.
This exercise was 85% more affordable than previous educational efforts reaching an amazing 20% increment in return of investment for the hair care category compared to previous year efforts.
Weather Ads helped Garnier increase sales by 24% in the hair care category compared to summer efforts the previous year.
The success of the summer 2015 program resulted in Garnier’s decision to implement the campaign during summer 2016 and optimise social content into a more situational lively educational creative.
As a result, Garnier has implemented on-going geo-targeted retail ads while evaluating innovative technology to reinvent its consumer product division (CPD) through an improved experience and product offerings.
After implementing an obvious Zero Moment of Truth path-to-purchase through real-time practical education Garnier Fructis has delivered its haircare promise.