Objectives

In December 2020, philosophy partnered with Scener, the virtual theater destination, to host a first-of-its-kind series of interactive self-care cinema nights with the objective of driving awareness around mental health, reaching a younger consumer base, and celebrating the iconic purity made simple franchise. The virtual experience served to entertain, talk skincare and educate consumers amid socially distance times when mental health plays a crucial role in people’s lives. The activation also provided a forum where today’s youth could have meaningful interactions with mega influencers they know and love, while watching TV shows with mental-health related themes, further enabling deeper conversations around the subject.

philosophy’s self-care cinema nights is an extension of the brand’s Hope & Grace initiative, where every product sold helps support community-based mental health efforts with financial grants focused on empowering women through the prevention and treatment of related issues. As the original wellbeing beauty brand, philosophy was passionate about launching this program during a critical time when awareness, acceptance and human connection is essential to one’s mental wellness and is an integral part of self-care.

philosophy is dedicated to empowering consumers through these cause-related efforts, products and through celebrating the rituals of self-care. It’s profound what allotting me time can have on one’s overall wellbeing. It’s the small things that can have a cumulative effect and be the start to more significant and positive changes. 

Strategy and Execution

In December 2020, philosophy launched self-care cinema nights, a first-of its kind 3-part series of live virtual watch parties hosted by celebrated content creators and music artists Julia Michaels, Jay Versace and Chika who reach a large Millennial and Gen-Z audience, and who openly communicate about personal and societal mental health issues.

Through the watch parties experience, fans simultaneously streamed and chatted live with Julia, Jay, and Chika about their favorite purity made simple products, and shows they love with themes that allowed for authentic conversations around mental health and wellbeing. After each of the three watch parties, the conversations continued with Instagram Live afterparties on the philosophy page hosted by college ambassadors (Lily Cornell Silver, Zoey Burger and Gigi Robinson) as they interviewed Julia, Jay and Chika about their reasons for selecting the show’s they just screened. This approach encouraged continual authentic dialogue around self-care, skincare and wellbeing topics, all of which supported a larger brand goal of destigmatizing conversations around mental health. Given the live nature of the discussion, fans were able to ask questions and interact with the IG Lives hosts throughout the experience. 

To drive trial and purity made simple awareness, the first 450 people who registered for the watch parties received a “self-care kit,” featuring the philosophy purity made simple regimen. Prior to the watch parties the influencer hosts, college ambassadors, and a skincare crew of 17 influencer partners shared their self-care kit and pre-watch party skincare routine, featuring the iconic line, on Instagram while promoting the cinema nights. The content encouraged participation in the event and prompted participants to share their purity made simple skincare regimes. 

The campaign was further supported by owned and 3rd party social channels, grassroots efforts and integrated e-commerce layers. The brand engaged audiences across all digital touchpoints pre-event, during the event and post screening, integrating further surprise & delight moments and purity made simple product incentives throughout the experience to maintain engagement and drive awareness of new and existing launches. 

Furthermore, in addition to the watch parties, philosophy elevated the importance of self-care by fostering educational opportunities and gave three fans the chance to win a $1,000 scholarship through an Instagram sweepstakes with the CTA to share your own “self-care philosophy.”

In addition to the activation itself, philosophy self-care cinema nights was a first-of-its-kind in terms of branded technology, video interaction and engagement in the virtual theater space. This was Scener’s first official brand partnership and philosophy worked with them to evolve their service model by curating a dedicated philosophy event microsite, registration page, and branded moments during the watch party interface.

The result was an intimate and unique co-branded virtual platform that reflected the target demographic’s lifestyle interests to connect, share content and have an open dialogue. Furthermore, it gave participants a new opportunity to engage with the brand, unwind and safely connect with friends during these socially distant times.

Results

Awareness & Consumer Engagement:

• philosophy’s 3 self-care cinema nights series, followed by 3 Instagram Live after-parties exceeded attendance goal by 55%, with 2.3K consumers participating across 38 countries with more than 240 minutes of meaningful conversations around mental health and brand interactions with consumers.
• More than 17K visitors visited the event microsite, where consumers could RSVP for the event and sign up for a “self-care kit.” Sign-ups created the potential of 1.9K new consumer opt-ins for future philosophy brand communication.
• philosophy distributed 100% of the 450 “self-care kits” within 48 hours of launch.

Third Party Support & Influencer Engagement:

• philosophy’s influencer and talent content strategy exceeded EMV goals by 33%, generating $476K in EMV, as well as exceeded influencer reach goals by 318%, resulting in 2 million+ impressions.

Owned Media:

• philosophy promotion for the event via brand-owned channels generated 5.7 million impressions and 3.7 million reach.

Sales

• contributed to philosophy’s holiday programming; resulting in 137% increase in purity sales compared to YA.

Media