Yellow teeth is the #2 oral issue amongst Chinese people (Mintel). However, it is not something most care about. Despite the amount of whitening toothpastes available, most consumers are skeptical about their effectiveness, and feel their money is better spent on toothpaste products that address total oral health. But as an image-focused society, yellow teeth have become a major source of anxiety, particularly for young Chinese women.

As a national heritage brand with decades of presence, Unilever’s Zhonghua toothpaste had a legacy problem – it was perceived to be old and outdated, struggling to stay relevant with younger consumers. To counter this, Zhonghua created an innovative solution for the market – ‘White Now’ a new concealer pen that covered the yellow on teeth quickly and seamlessly.

Our task was to both change brand perception into modern and vibrant and drive awareness and trial of White Now among image-obsessed Chinese youth.

To young Chinese women, looking ‘pretty’ is not enough—they strive for ‘perfection’. As many as 58% of post-95 women use editing software before posting a photo (Jiguang Data Service) and most would never think about leaving the house without looking flawless. So, not surprisingly, cosmetics play a very critical role in their beauty.

Despite significant efforts to look well-groomed, this issue of yellowing teeth severely troubles young Chinese women, recognizing it as a problem that cannot be solved with their regular range of cosmetics. Research identified that as teeth yellowed, women’s confidence to smile vanished, and with it, their inner shine.

To address the issue, White Now boldly stepped away from their fixed position in the toothpaste category and into the youthful cosmetics category where it could be seen as a brand that functions as ‘make up for your smile’, giving women’s smiles and confidence a boost.

Breaking the category mold, we based our strategy around developing a new habit for these young women of making the White Now pen the first step to a flawless makeup routine. We needed women view White Now as their go-to product for when they need to look and feel their best.

We strategically partnered with Tencent Video to sponsor reality show ‘Produce 101’ – a popular program that features 101 young women competing to be China’s next top girl group. Unlike traditional reality talent shows, Produce 101’s winners are crowd-sourced, enabling viewers to vote for their favorite contestant, letting viewers grow with the girls and become invested in who wins. This format helped to reinforce the habit creation for viewers, associating the routine of tuning into their favorite show with the new habit of starting their beauty routine and with a whitening pen.

The content partnership included three key parts:

1. Product usage and placements

Contestants were regularly filmed using the product backstage, demonstrating the product’s functionality and effectiveness while setting the context of using White Now for moments you need to shine most.

2. Branded mid-rolls

Five specially-produced brand mid-rolls were aired following cliffhanger moments, each featuring visuals of the contestants and their lipstick-ed mouths and white smiles, conveying the ‘make up for your smile’ proposition.

3. White Now ‘Wall of Smiles’

A branded Zhonghua ‘Wall of Smiles’ featuring smiling photos of the contestants was set up within an episode, allowing the audience to vote for their favourite smiles, the eventual winner engaged as the White Now’s official brand ambassador for external marketing activity.

Additionally, White Now created a special hashtag topic, ‘#WhiteNow101#’ on Weibo (China’s Twitter), with social posts focused on ‘Produce 101’ discussions to drive audience engagement and interaction.

White Now’s ‘Produce 101’ sponsorship was the #1 most-watched video content in China during the campaign period with nearly five billion views across the 10 episodes.

High social buzz was created, with posts carrying ‘#WhiteNow101’ receiving 150 million reads and 700k discussions.

Perception of the brand amongst consumers changed, with marked improvements across brand function to brand image metrics:

• Unaided brand awareness grew by 14.3% to 56.9%

• Brand favourability grew by 17.3% to 48%

The campaign also increased White Now’s visibility and desirability, the key brand metrics’ significant growth indicating the interest in adding White Now to their beauty regimen:

• “Make teeth whiter instantly” brand attribute increased by 54%

• “Modern/up to date” brand attribute increased by 83%

Ultimately, the campaign proved that White Now was a product that Chinese women were ready to add to their routine to help them smile brighter and more confidently.