How Pantene put the visually impaired community at the heart of its content
PrettyGreen, What They Said and Pantene won in the New Product or Service Launch Strategy of the Year category at The Drum Awards for Marketing 2022. Here, we find out more about what went into their successful campaign...
The brief
Pantene wanted brand and product differentiation for its new Miracles Silky & Glowing range in a cluttered and competitive hair products aisle. The product range USP was its transformative and restorative abilities to help repair straw-like and processed hair back to being silky and glowing.
PrettyGreen and What They Said were briefed to drive awareness and consideration of the range among beauty-loving consumers during the launch period of October–December 2021. They were also tasked to ensure that Pantene makes everyone feel visible and represented, and has access to ‘The Power of Hair’ and its deeper expression of identity and self.
The idea
P&G had an existing relationship with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and it partnered with Lucy Edwards, a visually impaired, beauty-loving creator, presenter and journalist, to inform the campaign strategy and planning.
For Edwards and the visually impaired community, hair feel and touch was identified as important component to having a good hair day. The focus on the typically side-lined visually impaired audience also enabled P&G to have a broader conversation about the exclusivity of the beauty industry to the visually impaired.
Edwards was an advisor throughout to ensure authenticity and sensitivity. P&G didn’t want this campaign to be tokenistic, but wanted to genuinely make an impact to the visually impaired community – not only with Edwards as the first visually impaired Pantene ambassador but also with how the blind community access hair and beauty.
Two key points of the campaign were to create brand and product recognition in retail environments and create access to hair and beauty tutorials for the visually impaired.
Pantene - Visual impairment Campaign from PrettyGreen on Vimeo.
From the millions of beauty tutorials created each year, it’s rare to see totally inclusive content, so Pretty Green and What They Said helped Pantene create the beauty industry’s first-ever Inclusivity Social Code of Conduct.
Pantene also partnered with RNIB to use Navi-lens technology on Silky & Glowing packaging in-store at Superdrug. A first-ever for the UK hair and beauty sector, the Navi-lens is a unique technology for visibly impaired people who have difficulty using traditional signage.
Grey Global and Pantene worked with Edwards to create a TVC showcasing her as Pantene’s newest ambassador. With no frills or distractions, Edwards is at the heart of this content, describing how the range transforms her hair from feeling straw-like to silk-like.
The results
The campaign resulted in 100% positive coverage sentiment across 38 publications, over 1.95bn reach and 1.76m coverage views, while the announcement of Edwards as ambassador was covered by the likes of Loose Women, Mail Online, Glamour and RNIB Radio.
The launch of Miracles Silky & Glowing product was also met with high demand within the beauty retail space and exceeded business sales targets.
Finally, Pantene’s Social Code of Conduct so far has created 311 social shares, 5,240 YouTube views and a reach of 1.47m.
This campaign was a winner at The Drum Awards for Marketing 2022. You can see all the winners here.
And check out which of The Drum Awards are currently open for entry.