Simple is the UK's #1 skincare range, but has yet to achieve that "breakthrough" moment in America. And for many U.S. consumers, it's not even in their consideration set. Simple's objective was, in a word, simple: to break through in feed, then break through in America.
Matched against brands with bigger names and bigger budgets, Simple needed to build awareness. While many brands go for a splash to make a wave, Simple took a different approach: to stand out, we had to fit in.
We started with the hypothesis that our millennial target may focus more on content that felt natural to the platform, rather than disrupts it. So we looked for ways she expressed herself, specifically on her Snapchat - and crafted content that worked for Snapchat, and worked for her.
We found two social content themes that stuck out in her feed: the aspirational lifestyle, and the "that's so me". That flat lay of your #avotoast? Aspirational. The @GirlWithNoJob post about ordering a bacon, egg and cheese directly to your bed? Been there. Soul Cycle after work? Aspirational. Crashing into your bed after work? Ditto. We identified these "millennial truth" moments, and used them to communicate that Simple both understood her life, and could be a part of it.
Through that lense, we brought our strategy to life with Snapchat ads that ingrained our products and their use into the relatable everyday moments. That feeling of sinking into your bed after a frustrating day at work? That's how our product feels for your skin. That morning when you wake up next to … a pizza? Simple will get your glowing skin back.
We understood that the millennial life likely consists more of those realistic moments, than the unrealistic perfection that our target sees across her feed and in the beauty and skincare advertisements served to her. Our creative themes of Simple "Feels Like" and "Expectation vs. Reality" leveraged these truths to show her how Simple is the catalyst to good skin during those moments in life where skin may be a bit a more… sensitive.
Through Snapchat Discover we targeted her in places where we knew she was over-indexing - millennial-focused feeds like Sweet, Refinery29, iHeart Radio, and Cosmo. Using Discover we were able to not disrupt her, but complement the content she already is interested in, and we leveraged Snapchat's creative best practices to earn her attention immediately upon viewing the content. By getting our key messages across seamlessly in an entertaining, relatable way way, we didn't just grab our consumer's attention, we kept it - leading to strong business results for the brand.
That brand awareness we needed? Using Snapchat Discover, we achieved it.
Our approach was to fit in to the feed, to stand out as a brand, and it worked. Upon completion of our flight, Simple garnered 29 million impressions, and saw a 14pt lift in Brand Awareness and an 8pt lift in Ad Awareness. We credit this to our Snapchat-tailored strategy and collaboration with our platform partners. We followed best practices and hooked our viewers within the first second to grab her attention, keep it, and help build awareness around our brand.
Beyond awareness, we saw major success in lower funnel metrics. By showing her how Simple understood her life, and could be a helpful part of her life, we achieved a 17pt lift in purchase intent.
There are millions of women on Snapchat, viewing thousands of pieces of content, but Simple's simple approach to relatable advertising proved to truly break through.