In the US, the Super Bowl is one of the biggest moments for brands and consumers alike. Beginning with the cultural insight of the "Taylor Swift Effect,” we identified the surge in female viewership and family co-viewing trends as an opportunity to insert Cetaphil into the Super Bowl conversation.
Since Swift’s appearance in the stands, and leading up to the Super Bowl, >17,000 social media users mentioned her as the reason they now watch football, including heartfelt accounts of families, particularly daughters, joining their fathers for game days.
We dug in further, using a consumer mapping exercise overlaid with social listening data that pinpointed a unique cultural intersection with the Cetaphil target: teens who have a beginning obsession with skincare.
By targeting families, especially connections between fathers and daughters, the campaign aimed to redefine traditional sports viewership and engage a wider demographic, including women and younger generations, in a conversation that extended beyond the game.
Key Insight:
Many fathers have seen Taylor Swift’s proximity to football as an opportunity to connect and share experiences with their daughters. These dads and daughters may have diverse interests, but Cetaphil had an extraordinary moment in time to celebrate their emerging bond with stories that included the brand while reinforcing its ‘sensitive’ equity and keeping it top of mind for those making skincare purchases.
Objectives:
Increase Cetaphil brand awareness, relevance and purchase intent with a younger female audience with emerging skincare interests
Position Cetaphil, a science-led sensitive skincare brand, for all ages/genders
The "Taylor Swift Effect" presented the opportunity for the brand to acknowledge a universal truth and sensitive moment unfolding in a way that no other brand was. By creating a story that would deeply resonate with this audience, Cetaphil naturally wove the brand and products within, reinforcing its sensitive brand equity to a net new consumer audience - young women obsessed with skincare, and their football-obsessed dads.
Given the heartfelt nature of this concept, we created a film that would anchor the campaign, aiming to merge a daughter’s world of emerging skincare interest with a father’s world of football into a beautiful moment. Starring a real father and daughter, the film captures their evolving relationship throughout the entire NFL season, week by week, leading up to the Super Bowl. As they navigate their different lives, we see a newfound bonding ritual.
With many skincare brands aiming to endear young consumers, Cetaphil offers safe, effective skincare that parents can feel good about. The hero film nods to that by emphasizing the value of shared interests during the fleeting tween years, keeping Cetaphil top of mind for parents as well as young women who recognized carefully laid Swiftie references – her signature "Easter eggs" – throughout the film, but never mentioning or showing the mega-star herself.
Strategically bridging the worlds of football and skincare to garner widespread attention, Cetaphil’s Game Time Glow harnessed the pivotal role of PR in reshaping perceptions, driving social conversation, and increasing brand relevance.
Execution and Tactics
To kick off its social-first campaign, Cetaphil secured Campaign US as the exclusive media partner to break the news. The hero film was then launched on YouTube, serving as the brand hub, and later cascaded to the brand’s broader social ecosystem using tailored assets and copy. Teaser shorts were developed for platforms like TikTok in line with best practices, with influencer mailer unboxings, content stitches, and gamified owned content.
The team strategically engaged Swiftie and Chiefs/sports social accounts, whose response catapulted the film into the conversation. Family influencer partners got in on the action as well, and widespread pitching efforts led to a cascade effect of national headlines, ultimately resulting in massive virality across earned media and social.
Encouraged by the overwhelming success of the digital campaign, Galderma also purchased a regional television spot in Dallas, TX – the company’s HQ market.
Through this campaign, Cetaphil, the only brand to capitalize on increased female engagement with the NFL, shows how sports marketing can transcend traditional boundaries.
Cetaphil Game Time Glow outperformed on every major metric and drove millions to respond with crying face emojis.
Cetaphil ranked in the top 25 covered brands from the Super Bowl, without running a national spot, amassing >5.7 billion earned impressions in major outlets such as Today Show, Good Morning America, The New York Times and Vogue.
The campaign went viral, trending on social media, garnering over 332 million organic impressions across social channels.
A significant increase in positive brand perception: 25 points higher than Dove
Cetaphil's average daily mentions increased 3.25X with our target audience. Across social media channels, conversation about the spot drove > 43M views, >32K posts from 25k unique authors and >355K engagements across social channels, trending on X and YouTube, with an 85% positivity score not typically seen with viral instances.
This was in line with or 25% more than direct Superbowl competitors spending 90% more on average.
The campaign also led to an all-time high branded search increase, doubling its average from the past five years.
Despite spending a fraction of what competitors did, Cetaphil was among the top 10 in highest lift in purchase intent with YouGov surveys showing an 81% lift – 42 points higher than its top competitors resulting in improved perceptions and a broader understanding of the brand’s values.
A notable uplift in product sales during and post-campaign.
