Charged with raising brand awareness and purchase intent for Skintimate shaving products via digital media, Beeby Clark+Meyler thought outside the box: Instead of one promotional idea for the brand in 2014, we created a suite of compelling ideas and content meant to inspire and empower Skintimate's target of millennial women. And so, Inspiration Nation was born.
Inspiration Nation, which lived on Tumblr, housed four user-generated content programs, as well as branded videos from four online beauty influencers. The influencers were tapped to create eight branded videos, one focused on their beauty and shave regimens and another one promoting one of the themed UGC programs: Inspire-a-gram, Make It Happen, Celebrate your Independence and Inner Beauty.
Inspiration Nation provided engaging, shareable content that was relevant and valuable to Skintimate's target audience. For example, Inner Beauty asked users to submit a photo of an inspiring woman in their lives by hashtagging #InnerBeauty #Skintimate. Make It Happen encouraged users to submit a video or photo that depicted a personal goal, and to tell them how Skintimate could help "make it happen," with a grand prize of $5,000. This contest saw very personal and detailed entries, and even resulted in handwritten letters of support for the brand.
Inspiration Nation received over 5,000 contest entries and over 390,000 site sessions, while the influencer videos garnered 1.7 million video views. Users were surveyed before viewing and after viewing these videos, and survey results showed that the likelihood to purchase increased 7% and likelihood to recommend increased 13%.
Rarely do you hear shaving mentioned as part of the beauty conversation, but Skintimate set out to change that with its Inspiration Nation effort. By working with online beauty influencers, we were able to promote the amazing content that Skintimate was putting out via these influencers' wide social presence, and this helped make Skintimate a relevant, credible part of the beauty category.
In addition to the promotions mentioned above, this campaign also included a very successful online product sampling effort with Crowdtap called #SkintimateHappyLegs, which helped spread buzz about the product, and increase trial and engagement. Finally, a partnership with "Hunger Games" mixed together protagonist Katniss Everdeen's most empowering moments with Inspiration Nation content.
This engaging, multifaceted experience went above and beyond its goal of increasing reach and relevance among young women. By tying emotional appeal to UGC programs, we generated positive sentiment, which in turn increased brand affinity. The brand received an outpouring of positive feedback and support in the form of online comments, and even snail mail sent to the brand. Can you think of any other shaving campaign that comes close?
