Hero Cosmetics entered Valentine’s Day with a clear directive: generate buzz for Mighty Patch™ Original in a way that earned attention instead of asking for it. In a crowded skincare landscape, the brand wanted to create something people would discover, react to, share—work designed to spark conversation, not blend into a traditional campaign cycle.
The brand has consistently championed the normalization of breakouts. For this activation, the goal was to reintroduce Mighty Patch Original by turning one of skincare’s least romantic realities into something indulgent, funny, shareable, and culturally fluent. The “ick factor” wasn’t accidental; it was the hook. The campaign was designed to stop the scroll, generate buzz, and give creators something so unexpected they couldn’t help but post it.
The campaign would mark multiple first-ever moments for the brand, including its first socially focused activation and its first custom song collection. It needed to surprise and delight the community, feel intentionally playful and a little unhinged, and remain rooted in the very real way people talk and feel about their skin.
At its core, the objective was to take power away from pimples and breakouts, while reinforcing a clear behavioral reminder: patch your pimples, don’t pop them.
The strategy leaned into a simple cultural metaphor: zits are like a box of chocolates. You never know when one will show up or what– or what you’re going to get.
The idea was to make that metaphor literal.
At the center of the activation, 190 influencers received a heart-shaped box that reads “To My Pimples: I’D NEVER POP OUR LOVE.” Beneath a note that read “I’D PATCH IT” sat six handcrafted chocolate truffles designed to look like pimples—complete with glossy skin texture and whiteheads that burst with vanilla ganache when bitten into. The breakout chocolates were nestled next to a box of Hero Mighty Patch™ Original pimple patches and were given names, such as “Red Flag,” “It’s Complicated,” “Situationship,” “Party Crasher,” amongst others. Ten additional boxes were reserved for a consumer giveaway on Instagram.
The visual execution treated the chocolates with the same care as luxury confections. Teaser and launch films borrowed the language of late-90s seductive chocolate commercials, complete with a red silk backdrop and slow-motion squeezes that sent vanilla ganache oozing from each whitehead. The spots were intentionally shot on BETA to heighten the retro effect. The punchline steered viewers toward the behavioral message: patch your pimples, don’t pop them.
During the edit, our creative team wrote a custom love song inspired by 1970s ballads. The brand then expanded the idea into “Let’s Get Poresonal”, Hero Cosmetics’ first five-track song collection spanning genres from New Wave pop to French house to Miami-ready club music. Tracks were released as original audio on Instagram and TikTok, inviting creators to participate using sound rather than hashtags.
As a playful extension of the campaign, Hero launched a limited-time hotline where fans could call to hear the tracks—narrated by the same slow, seductive voice from the films as a tongue-in-cheek nod to 90s 1-900 commercials.
The activation spanned 13 days, beginning February 5th with the shipment of The Breakout Boxes. Social content launched February 9th across Meta, TikTok, and Spotify with an initial teaser video, followed by a launch video, static assets, influencer content, behind-the-scenes footage, giveaway content, lyric videos, and hotline promotion through February 21st.
Together, the influencer boxes, social films, custom music, and hotline reframed acne from a source of embarrassment into something indulgent, shareable, and culturally fluent—while reinforcing Hero’s ongoing commitment to normalizing breakouts.
The Breakout Box successfully reintroduced Mighty Patch Original by earning attention through humor, intentional discomfort and cultural fluency, earning attention across platforms,fueling creator content and generating the buzz the brand set out to earn.
Within the first week of launch, the campaign delivered 16.9 million total views across Instagram and TikTok, with 170.4K total engagements. Instagram drove 11.7 million views and 123.6K engagements, while TikTok contributed 5.2 million views and 46.8K engagements—strong early proof that the work resonated natively within social environments.
A total of 59 influencer social posts generated $342K in earned media value and 2 million social impressions, reaching a combined 39 million followers. Organic PR box content alone drove $163K in EMV, 855K impressions, 51 influencer posts, and 51K engagements. Paid influencer content added $179K in EMV, 1.2 million impressions, and 72K engagements.
Notable creators including Montana & Ryan (5.9M TikTok followers), Mackenzie and Braden Galloway (2.4M), and Kristi Howard (3.3M) helped extend the campaign’s reach. In total, 200 influencers engaged with the activation.
The performance proved the idea did exactly what it was designed to do: spark creator content, earn attention in-feed, and turn breakouts into a cultural moment.
