Bio-Oil is the UK’s best-selling skincare treatment for scars, stretch marks and uneven skin tone. Through reasons beyond its control, Bio-Oil doesn’t have a UK website so social media plays an integral part in developing brand advocacy.

Skin Stories is a campaign that’s been built around a central Facebook community. Since launch, we’ve grown this community from 3,000 to over 173,000, achieving an average engagement figure of 3%, double that of the top 10% of brands on Facebook. Under the most recent platform – Every Body has a Skin Story - women were inspired to share their personal stories (almost 600 contributed) to bring new women into the community (it grew by over 50,000). Compelling stories were played back to the community to highlight the range of product uses, with stories touching on pregnancy and accidents, right through to the highly emotional area of self-harming.

The campaign also reached 13.9 million through a mix of media coverage and third party social media posts and Bio-Oil’s own social media platforms. Four celebrities supported the campaign on Twitter (without being paid) reaching 544,998 followers and the campaign is now being launched across other markets including Australia, SA and the USA.

Every week a story was chosen and showcased on the Facebook page. These had high engagement and community support, which encouraged more people to share their stories. The campaign was brave enough to tackle some very emotional issues, for example, Ruby came to the page and opened up about her history of self-harming. Her story recorded the highest engagement.

Sponsored posts and targeted Facebook advertising also drawing genuine fans and those with an interest in Bio-Oil.

A Twitter stream based around #myskinstory allowed us to extend the campaign reach beyond Facebook to engage with Bio-Oil’s known celebrity following, retailers, charity partners and new fans.

Another Bio-Oil fan, Sally, featured in pharmacy Point of Sale, integrating the campaign into where people were receiving direct advice about scars and stretch marks

Health and beauty bloggers were engaged to share their own skin story, providing content to share on Facebook.

Outputs:

13.9m reach

568 stories shared

53 items of media and blogger coverage

20 media outlets shared on social media

1,009 tweets used #myskinstory

4 non paid celebrities supported the campaign on Twitter

Consideration and knowledge:

90% of posts over the campaign were positive

The campaign averaged 4,420 people ‘talking about this’ each week - av. engagement of 3%. Almost double the best 10% of Facebook pages

At peak weeks of the campaign engagement rate was as high as 12.7%

Action and business impact:

Sales figures uplift (see confidential section)

48.4% of fans said that the Bio-Oil Facebook page had encouraged them to purchase (own survey)

Developed new relationships with 51,370 people

Market share grew from 73.2% in 2012 to 76.2% in 2013

The campaign is being rolled out across Australia, SA and the USA.

Some of the women that shared stories will be featuring in 2014 marketing