Manuela's Wedding

Sunsilk is the top hair care brand in Brazil and was set to launch a new product, Sunsilk S.O.S. Crescimento Fortificado, whose main benefit is to drive strong hair growth at a rate of up to 1.27 cm a month. Sunsilk had focused its brand position around the expression, "Life can't wait, why should hair in a bid to appeal to the lives of 20-something-girls.

The challenge was to create a communication campaign capable of bringing together the brand's philosophy (life can't wait) and the new variant's powerful functional benefit. As Unilever research showed that 70% of women have "growth" and "strength" as two of their main hair care needs, Sunsilk needed a platform to reach this huge percentage of Brazilian women.

Due to the huge role that soap operas play in Brazilian cultural life, Sunsilk decided that this would be the most powerful creative direction to take. An original, four-episode sitcom was produced following the four month's leading up to the most important day in a woman's life: her wedding day. The plot linked to the product as Manuela had cut her hair short only to get engaged the following day. The target audience became gripped with Manuela's struggles to have her perfect wedding and, more importantly, her perfect hair.

The episodes were aired on TV, and were then made available on a website created for the project. Sunsilk also produced exclusive online content, including video tips from Manuela's hair stylist, dermatologist and nutritionist. The FAQ section of the website was transformed into video interviews with these skilled professionals.

The mystery of who was trying to sabotage Manuela's wedding could only be solved via Manuela's blog, and the sitcoms character profiles that were created on social networking sites, such as Orkut, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. Consumers were encouraged to interact with the content, coming up with their own storylines. The winner of this competition appeared as a guest star on a special episode of the show.

The first episode was viewed 500,000 times on YouTube and the product is now the biggest selling product in SunSilk's portfolio, which has 21 products. Market share was increased by 400%.