Challenge :

SK-II used to be the No.1 prestige skin care brand but its position was becoming diluted and consumers were leaving to competitive brands offering newer, cheaper deals or mass brands offering copycat products.

Objective :

1) To change consumers’ perception from ‘there is nothing new or interesting to talk about SK-II’ to ‘that is a topic I am interested in and can relate to (from SK-II)’

2) To change consumers’ perception from ‘SK-II is one of the prestigious brands because it is expensive and it used to be the IT brand’ to ‘SK-II is a brand that understands us and stands for values I believe in’

Strategy & execution:

Digital media alliance with the ‘controversial’ topic - 'extremely low beauty ego of Korean women' that will resonate with our target and social issue. After raising the issue, we encouraged Korean women to ‘Speak out I’m beautiful’ with multiple videos and to share these for the movement.

Result:

The native ad achieved 160% higher viral effect, 4 times more replies, 4 times more page views vs. other beauty related native ads and the 5th release of native ads recorded the highest ever page view historically (115,188) and local radio programs took this topic as a campaign that raises women’s self-esteem.

Key 'PR' elements:

Provoke the controversy over 'extremely low beauty ego of Korean women' in the context of a beauty obsession phenomenon and Korean women's low self esteem. This prompted debate and conversation and finally drove the movement.

Though the campaign has just executed, the initial result is great. Issue raising of un-talked controversial topic and having Korean women believe in their beauty not only well resonated with our target but also with social issue about beauty obsessed phenomenon. As the issue had to get quick social attention and wide penetration, we strategically chose influential digital media - The Huffington Post. The native ad co-created with Huffington Post and branded video contents we produced ignited debate against 'beauty in Korea'.

In case of 1st native ad, we used the data 1) the lowest 'appearance satisfaction index' of Korean women in comparison with other countries women and 2) world's highest raking of cosmetic surgery. This numerical data and issue raising gained immediate attention and drove the conversation around low beauty ego of Korean women. Together with manifesto video content, this native ad achieved 160% higher viral effect, 4 times more reply, 4 times more page view (83,481) vs. other beauty related native ads. And 5th release of native ad recorded historically highest ever page view (115,188).

And, local radio program took this topic as a campaign that raised women's self-esteem and voluntary consumer engagement UCC of their own experience after speaking out were created and uploaded.

Though the campaign has just executed, the initial result is great. Issue raising of un-talked controversial topic and having Korean women believe in their beauty not only well resonated with our target but also with social issue about beauty obsessed phenomenon. As the issue had to get quick social attention and wide penetration, we strategically chose influential digital media - The Huffington Post. The native ad co-created with Huffington Post and branded video contents we produced ignited debate against 'beauty in Korea'. The 1st release of native ad about 'low beauty ego of Korean women' and manifesto video achieved 160% higher viral effect, 4 times more reply, 4 times more page view (83,481) vs. other beauty related native ads and 5th release of native ad recorded historically highest ever page view (115,188). Local radio program took this topic as a campaign that raised women's self-esteem and voluntary consumer engagement UCC of their own experience after speaking out were created and uploaded.