With face makeup accounting for 48 percent of all makeup sales, L'Oréal Paris needed to find a way to prove that its Infallible Cushion makeup powder could withstand any situation, setting it apart from competitors and driving sales.
Objective and Context:
In this campaign, L'Oréal Paris designed an immersive experience for its target audience. Firstly, it created social buzz on the lifestyle app Da Zhong Dian Ping by fully leveraging its resources — for instance, by disseminating ads as well as partnering with China's hottest food to fully engage consumers in a way they loved. L'Oréal Paris placed its Infallible Cushion products in every step of the experience to drive sales and increase brand influence.
Compared to last year's launch, in which consumer uptake was steady, this year's hotpot challenge accelerated brand building and improved the brand's sales.
Target Audience:
This campaign was targeted at young consumers, who are hip and trendy makeup lovers and love hotpot — and are active on social media.
Creative Strategy:
While many believe that the ultimate makeup stress test would be a hot, humid summer's day in Asia, a yoga class, or even a marathon, they're wrong. In China, the toughest, spiciest, most humid stress test for any makeup is your weekly hotpot meal with friends.
Hotpot is the ultimate social meal in China, and it happens all the time; in fact, one out of four meals in China is done over hotpot. Hotpot is literally what you think it is: It is a pot full of boiling, spicy food being shared around the table. It's also an epic test for any woman's makeup; nothing reveals a poor choice in makeup better than an hour of hotpot.
L'Oréal Paris partnered with China's top-ranking lifestyle app, Da Zhong Dian Ping. This app is used extensively by everyday people across China to discover the newest and hippest restaurants in town, while allowing users to share their experiences in real time.
Through Da Zhong Dian Ping, L'Oréal Paris identified Dian Tai Xiang, the most popular and talked about hotpot restaurant in China. It topped the chart as the No.1 hotpot restaurant on the app that was highly rated by the young consumers who were L'Oréal Paris's target audience. The restaurant was so popular that queues led out of the door at each branch. Partnering with Dian Tai Xiang, L'Oréal Paris created the Infallible Cushion Hotpot Challenge across Dian Tai Xiang's chain of restaurants in China.
Overall Campaign Execution:
L'Oréal Paris created a joyful and innovative experience for consumers. It leveraged the media resources of Da Zhong Dian Ping and the popularity of China's hottest food, hotpot, to attract consumers to undertake the ultimate test of its products.
Mobile Execution:
To prompt fans to go to the stores, L'Oréal Paris created social buzz on Da Zhong Dian Ping (where consumers looked for restaurant recommendations) by partnering with China's hottest food and beauty influencers and leaders. In addition, L'Oréal Paris leveraged the entire Da Zhong Dian Ping ecosystem, connecting with fans at every possible stage, from ads in apps and display banners, to SEO, to ads in feeds and social media shout-outs.
To leverage Dian Tai Xiang's popularity across China, L'Oréal Paris set up a series of on-site photo-booths where fans could try on Infallible Cushion while waiting in line, before putting the makeup to the ultimate test over a boiling hotpot meal in the restaurant.
Afterwards, fans were invited to see how the makeup had withstood the test and were entered into a drawing to win sizzling hot prizes for every review or share posted on Da Zhong Dian Ping.
Face makeup is the biggest category within makeup, contributing 48 percent of total sales of makeup in China, according to Euromonitor. L'Oréal Paris launched Infallible Cushion, a new compact powder for the face, to appeal to the young, hip, and trendy makeup lovers.
For L'Oréal Paris, it was becoming difficult to achieve higher growth. The majority of face makeup brands were dialing up product awareness through institutional creative assets.
In creating the Infallible Cushion Hotpot Challenge, L'Oréal Paris offered an opportunity for fans to put Infallible Cushion to the ultimate test. This first-of-kind quirky collaboration drew viral interest from across the country. A staggering 1.5 million women accepted and shared the challenge. Women across China loved the challenge, with click through rates 3.5 times above benchmarks.
