To combat a steady decline in sales, Nice 'n Easy needed to re-energize its brand by becoming more relevant to younger women and dispelling the belief that hair color is for the old. Faced with a limited budget, the brand created a digital video campaign that would play where these women spend most of their time: on Facebook. The result was a series of tongue-in-cheek Facebook mobile video episodes that centered on the story of an annoying couple, "The Greys," who move into a colorful neighborhood and disrupt the lives of their female neighbors.
Objective and Context:
For several years, Nice 'n Easy had been facing a steady decline in sales. To combat this, the brand needed to dispel the belief that Nice 'n Easy is just for old people and find a way to engage younger women. Other leading hair color manufacturers used traditional advertising channels, such as print and TV, to drive awareness among this audience. However, since Nice 'n Easy had a limited budget to work with, the brand needed to think creatively to boost relevance and drive sales. The brand wanted to entertain women and educate them on the key product benefits through a digital video series that played where they spent most of their time: on Facebook.
Target Audience:
The core audience for the campaign was Australian women between the ages of 35 and 40, who were experiencing their first signs of greying hair. This group is comprised of women who feel young despite what their hair indicates. For the moms in this group, while they are generally confident and happy with the lives they've created for themselves, their newfound greys have made them question themselves — especially during key moments in the year when they want to look youthful, such as back to work, back to school, holidays, birthdays, and weddings.
Creative Strategy:
In the 1930s, P&G produced and sponsored some of the first radio soap operas as a way to engage women with stories and sell the brand's products. Nowadays, since the brand's audience spends most of their time scrolling through their social media newsfeeds, Nice 'n Easy's strategy was to recreate the soap opera for the digital realm. Because a mobile audience is not a captive audience, the brand's approach was to treat the content they created as a TV show first and an ad second. Instead of waiting for commercial breaks to run traditional disruptive ads, the show itself would now be the vehicle to gain women's attention and illustrate the product's benefits. The result was a series of tongue-in-cheek Facebook mobile video episodes that detailed the story of an annoying young couple, "The Greys," moving into a colorful town and disrupting the lives of the women in the neighborhood. These episodes playfully and empathetically tapped into all the emotions that women feel when they discover their first grey hairs.
Overall Campaign Execution:
The campaign ran on Facebook only and was measured independently through a Nielsen Brand Effect study covering ad recall, top-of-mind awareness, and consideration, as well as Aztec scan sales data to show impact on sales and share. Ninety-one percent of the campaign was delivered on Facebook mobile, and 9 percent on Facebook desktop.
Mobile Execution:
The targeting capabilities that are available through Facebook mobile allowed Nice 'n Easy to shape the brand messaging and content around the audience's key life moments, like birthdays and weddings, in addition to key purchase periods, like back to school or back to work. For instance, the brand created an episode called "The Nightmare Greys," which showed The Greys crashing the birthday party of one of the lead characters. Then, using Facebook, Nice 'n Easy was able to target viewers with this video on their actual birthdays. Additionally, the brand was also able to use Facebook to drive the audience through the purchase funnel by retargeting those who had seen the episodes with GIFs and Facebook video link ads. These ads contained online and in-store price point specials. This complete storytelling platform approach, which utilized all the specific targeting and ad format options available through Facebook, would not have been possible on any other platform or medium.
The campaign was originally due to run for three months, but it was so successful that it ran for a second three-month phase with no optimization required. The campaign reached 2.3 million women with 7.7 million video views, and it was able to achieve four times the reach and frequency of TV with the same budget. Nice 'n Easy hit its highest quarterly share in two years, sales grew 9 percent versus the previous 12 months, and there was a total of 63,000 likes, comments, and shares throughout the campaign, which led to an increase of 20 percent in organic reach. Additionally, the Nielsen Brand Effect study recorded a 17-point lift in ad recall, a three-point lift in top-of-mind awareness, and a one-point lift in consideration. Nice 'n Easy was the only major hair color manufacturer to increase share over the six-month campaign period and created more consumer conversations than any other at-home hair color brand in this period. Above all, the campaign proved that mobile videos can drive meaningful business results and delight a mass audience at the same time.
