In March 2021, up-and-coming musician, Heather Chelan (HEB) posted a video on TikTok that went viral garnering over 7.9M views. In the 15-second clip, she sang about how “Having Colored Hair Doesn’t Make You Unprofessional.” Her mantra spoke to Sally Beauty’s core values, so the retailer immediately reached out to HEB about collaborating on a full version of the song. As the largest omnichannel hair color retailer, Sally Beauty’s goal was to normalize self-expression through vibrant hair color and celebrate the transformative power of color.
PR Objectives:
Drive significant coverage of the YOU by Sally campaign with earned media in the lifestyle, beauty and trade space with a focus on feature stories. To launch the ad, Sally Beauty hosted an in-person media and influencer event to help further build relationships with key individuals and the brand.
Paid Media Objectives:
The paid media budget focused efforts on driving awareness with an engaging video through YouTube, TikTok, as well as other streaming video services. This was accompanied with Digital Display to find ‘her’ when she was looking for hair color solutions. Lastly, Audio utilized the music to grab ‘her’ attention when on-the go.
Social Media Objectives:
Partner with up-and-coming musician, HEB, to amplify her viral song, “Having Colored Hair Doesn’t Make You Unprofessional.”
Partner with influencers across different age groups, races, occupations and genders to spread the message and empower self-expression across a highly diverse audience.
This 360 campaign contained elements from marketing, to PR, to influencer collaborations, which all led to the nationwide launch of the YOU by Sally ad on June 4, 2021 across social channels. The full version of “Colored Hair” was also released on Spotify and YouTube on June 4, 2021. Sally Beauty partnered with TikTok to feature a special cut of “Colored Hair” exclusively on the digital platform.
The campaign featured a diverse cast of influencers with unique professions, ages, and backgrounds to further reinforce the universality of the message of self-expression. To bring this powerful message to life, Sally Beauty partnered with influencers, such as “granfluencer” Baddie Winkle, professional dancer Marquese “NonStop” Scott, musician Grace Kelly, American Ninja Warrior contestant and Sally Crew member Charity Grace, Registered Pediatric Nurse Glecy Baquirin, and more.
To launch the YOU by Sally campaign, Sally Beauty built a communication strategy that consisted of an in-person event, exclusive media opportunity, and embargoed/wide outreach to drive buzz and earned media coverage within the beauty media category.
Exclusive/Embargo: The PR team offered key beauty trade outlet, Glossy, the exclusive. The PR team prioritized beauty trade and consumer media, but integrated ad trade, music, local, lifestyle, entertainment into outreach as well.
Event: The in-person event unveiled the ad campaign, much like a movie premiere. Top tier beauty editors and well-known beauty influencers located in NYC were able to attend and learn about Sally Beauty’s wide assortment of products, expertise as a DIY resource as well as their mission to normalize self-expression. The PR team built out experiential elements that helped share Sally Beauty’s message of self-expression which included:
Self-expression Wall: Included images of Sally Beauty influencer partners as well as employees and store associates which were displayed alongside quotes about what self expression and hair color mean to them.
Color Bar: Guests discovered an array of Sally Beauty hair color products and spoke with local store associates while receiving a 1:1 styling session from DIY expert and celebrity hairstylist, Gregory Patterson.
Host: The PR team partnered with RuPaul’s Drag Race star, Joey Jay to host the event. Joey introduced key players at Sally Beauty and performed for the guests.
Premiere: Within the Color Wall was a large camouflaged screen where the ad played. This created a unique unveiling.
The PR team adjusted the media strategy to better connect with Sally Beauty’s consumer in a fun and engaging way. Sally Beauty launched TikTok in November 2020 as a ‘test and learn platform’ without limits as a way to see how consumers are engaging with the platform. With YOU by Sally, Sally Beauty made a big splash on TikTok using paid advertising, influencer marketing, and organic social media through a 360 TikTok takeover in June 2021. Sally Beauty used the platform to create a movement around HEB’s song and break the stereotypes of what having a vivid hair color means, and in turn encourage consumers to say “yes, I can color my hair too.”
The campaign launch strategy effectively resulted in social buzz and earned media and surpassed all KPIs. Earned coverage included feature stories in outlets like People.com, Refinery29, CNBC, and CEW.
Earned Media Impressions: Results: 240M+ (Source: Cision)
Feature Stories: Results: 30 (Sally Beauty included in Headline or majority focus of story)
Event Attendees: Results: 40 attendees, 1M+ social impressions from on-site posts (media + influencer headcount, follower count)
The YOU by Sally campaign started important conversations that quickly reverberated across every social channel resonating with countless individuals. Sally Beauty and its influencer partners featured in the YOU by Sally campaign garnered the following from June 4, 2021 to June 10, 2021, across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok:
Over 79.5M cumulative video views
During the campaign’s takeover on June 10, 2021, Sally Beauty generated over 1.2M likes and grew their following 10x to 81.2K in only 24 hours.
Over 1.6M cumulative engagements through likes, comments, and shares
Launched a TikTok takeover on June 10, 2021. The takeover kicked off with a special cut of HEB’s new single, “Colored Hair,” inspired by her viral TikTok of the same song. The takeover generated 1M visits to sallybeauty.com along with 77.2M video views on the TikTok sponsored post in 24 hours. [Google Analytics and TikTok]
