Due to the powerful influence of orthodox opinion leaders, Russians largely espouse traditional, highly conservative views on many social issues.

Vivienne Sabó is the first beauty leader to publicly challenge these conservative views and take the stance on this extraordinarily sensitive topic by encouraging

a public discussion on social media.

The brand is all about freedom of speech and personal expression.

Vivienne Sabó successfully competes with global brands such as L'Oreal Paris and Maybelline.

Vivienne Sabó enjoys customer loyalty not only through the combination of affordable price and high quality.

Vivienne Sabó also participates in brand activism taking a firm stand on the most urgent problems facing the Russian society. Every piece of communication brand treats as an opportunity to speak out loudly about certain social tensions & issues.

Due to the powerful influence of orthodox opinion leaders, Russians largely espouse traditional, highly conservative views on many social issues. The policy is encouraged by the state media and government actions.

Many international beauty brands adapt their ads to the views of conservative majority. It means that beauty industry in Russia encourages and promotes the harmful sociocultural stereotypes.

Vivienne Sabó open position challenges the Russian conservative society and the beauty industry itself.

Vivienne Sabó released a video manifesto about freedom of self expression.

The concept of manifesto was inspired by the drag queen culture,

where male artists perform in extravagant female outfits with bright makeup.

Only progressive media and bloggers In Russia have courage to discuss this issue. Beauty brands completely bypass this topic: a year ago, an international cosmetics brand decided not to take any risks and simply "cut out" a male make-up blogger from ads for Russia.

Brand reminds us that besides else, cosmetics can also be a driver of social change.

Cabaret Premiére mascara is chosen to be the hero product that breaks stereotypes. It is a famous and iconic product, #1 mascara in sales in Russia (Nielsen data).

The target audience of Vivienne Sabó is females, age of 18-35. Cosmetics is a way of self expression for them. They have positive views toward brands that raise social issues and help to solve them (IPSOS data).

But gender stereotypes are highly prevalent in the Russian society.

Brand reminds us that besides else, cosmetics can also be a driver of social change. YouTube was used as an important social media known to encourage public debate and discussion of sensitive issues.

To implement the idea, we team up with the Chicken Curry team. They are known for challenging accepted norms and trying to teach society treat different forms of self-expression positively on YouTube.

The music video manifesto was a core of the campaign. The creative team took inspiration from brands mission and put a new twist on a meet-the-parents dinner situation. The video was promoted via social media and profiles of creative team on Instagram.

The music track, performed by Alexander Gudkov (major celebrity artist in Russia), was placed on all the music platforms and sounded at the Vogue Ball held in Petersburg.

The video-manifesto achieved 6.5 million views and was in YouTube trending list for 2 days.

Despite its long length average viewing depth was 70% it's 2.5 times higher than YouTube benchmarks.

Viewers supported the brand’s bold stance: 400 000 reactions to the video (likes, comments, reposts) and 13 500 posts from users mentioning the brand and the video.

The viral effect provided an additional reach of 16 million people (earned media),

which increased the media effect of the campaign by 3.5 times.

The advertising campaign was noticed and covered by state media.

People appreciated the brand's campaign not only with online reactions.

Cabaret Premiere mascara showed an 11.7% increase in sales in stagnant market, and its brand awareness increased by 7%.

Most important that millions of people have seen that it is possible to be yourself, to be different... Change your views