THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!

Special Project

Special Project
From the 13th Annual Shorty Awards

Launching Restylane Kysse During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Finalist in Beauty

Entered in Instagram Partnership, Integrated Campaign

Objectives

Real Chemistry planned to launch Galderma’s new hyaluronic acid (HA) lip filler Restylane® Kysse with a series of up close and personal activations that showcased why women loved it. Then COVID-19 hit. Cosmetic offices around the country were forced to close, challenging Galderma to quickly jump to action to ensure providers felt supported more than ever before and raise awareness for a new product amid a global pandemic.

This is a story about Real Chemistry's smart and agile pivot during COVID-19 for a launch that has become Galderma’s best in U.S. Aesthetics to-date.

Galderma had conducted a Phase IV study showing that not only were patients treated with Restylane Kysse satisfied with their lips (100%) and felt they were more kissable (98%), but a majority of their partners (90%) were too, with most partners (73%) reporting a more kissable and natural feel.

With the goal of making Restylane Kysse the #1 lip augmentation option within two years, Real Chemistry's original plan included live events that brought to life the “kissability” data and the technological advantages of Restylane Kysse over other fillers.

So how do you launch a product that’s best appreciated up close and personal during a time when that’s just not possible?

The new remit: stoke demand for Restylane Kysse during the pandemic so that when the lockdown lifted, aesthetic injectors would have it in their offices and consumers would be clamoring for it. Then, maintain awareness throughout the year to ensure ongoing patient visits.

Strategy and Execution

Research & Insights

Launching Restylane Kysse was not without challenges – even before the pandemic. This was the fifth lip augmentation product to launch in the U.S., and the target consumer, women 30+, had no strong brand preference, believing all fillers are the same.

There’s a stigma about lip augmentation, so many women keep their lip treatments a secret. Women also fear an adverse “duck lip” outcome and worry whether their partners will like their enhanced lips. This insight inspired the Galderma Phase IV “Kissability” study, which provided a key product reason-to-believe and newsworthy media content.

Strategy

We quickly pivoted to virtual/digital communications and focused on winning over aesthetic injectors so they:

  1. Would promote Restylane Kysse in their market even during office closures and
  2. Would be stocked with product when they could open their offices

We needed to:

Execution

Start with aesthetic injector education

Evolve to advocacy

Pulse the news out to consumers, ensuring high awareness throughout the year

Harness the power of influencers to reach consumers where they are – online. Our influencer strategy involved:

Results

Because the team acted tenaciously and nimbly during the COVID-19 pandemic, Restylane Kysse has been Galderma’s best U.S. Aesthetic launch to date, with sales 3.5 times the combined launch of two previous Restylane products.

Media

Video for Launching Restylane Kysse During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Entrant Company / Organization Name

Real Chemistry, Galderma

Entry Credits