Event and athlete sponsorship is a well-known media tactic designed to get brand recognition and fame. SK-II used its Olympic sponsorship to demonstrate that even the most successful women face challenges and to help women realise that even icons have to face down their demons.

The result was a powerful storytelling platform, which combined sports themes with the brand’s key strategic message of #CHANGEDESTINY. Promoted using a mix of seeding, organic reach and paid media messages and activations, we turned this content into a true mass media event that elevated athlete sponsorship to new levels.

SK-II believes in the power of storytelling to influence culture, overcome social biases and create positive change.

The brand’s purpose is to help millions of women change their destiny by standing up to the pressures and expectations that are pushed on them every-day, as pressure should never dictate choices.

Over the years, its #CHANGEDESTINY campaigns have inspired millions, focusing on evolving and controversial topics like marriage pressures and societal expectations women face globally.

As part of its sponsorship of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics SK-II was due to launch a global campaign, but as the athletes were in final stages of training, the world was hit by a global pandemic that put the Olympics on pause.

When the Olympics were rescheduled to 2021, SK-II had to pivot and adapt to the new circumstances and a changed world, taking the “Change Destiny” journey on a new route.

In some societies people don’t always express their true feelings. That’s particularly common for women in Asia and the pandemic had put them under even more pressure. Many not only had to balance work and home responsibilities but also added home-schooling to the mix.

In addition, physical quarantines were accompanied by an explosion of time spent online, especially on social-media. This was taking a severe toll on mental health, often leading to growing image obsessions and in extreme cases even to depression and suicides.

With the Tokyo 2020 Olympics rescheduled, SK-II would support women athletes, highlighting not only their triumphs but also their struggles. We would show how they managed to overcome them on way to changing their destiny.

We would use this content to inspire all women in their internal struggles, helping them confront their inner demons. We would help women realize destiny is a choice, not society’s chance.

Change Destiny is at the core of SK-II’s longstanding messaging and the brand connects with its target audience of young adult women on an emotional level by addressing the real issues impacting their confidence.

We would establish SK-II Studio™, a film production house dedicated to tackling social pressures impacting women. Bringing together world-renowned film-makers, animators, musicians and content-creators we will use the power of long-form storytelling and the combination of real-life footage with animation to bring to life the internal struggles of our ambassadors, with imagination, authenticity and sensitivity as well as the passion to inspire positive change.

SK-II Studio™ film releases would sit at the heart of our campaign, as we replicated the media strategy used by major global movie launches with star-studded premieres, teaser events and behind the scenes footage.

Our campaign would spark conversations around social pressures and the inner struggles they trigger for many women.

“Vs.”, our Olympics-themed anthology inspired women to take charge of their own destiny with six episodes that interpret the personal journey of SK-II sponsored athletes, detailing how they changed their destiny.

Combining animation and real-life footage, each episode explored overcoming societal pressures such as trolling, beauty rules, image obsession and self-doubt, all dramatically brought to life as a “kaiju”, a Japanese monster, representing an inner demon the athletes must defeat.

The teaser event in New-York’s Times-Square featured Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, followed up by a star-studded premiere in China and a global teaser campaign.

Augmented-Reality social retail pop-up stores were set up in conjunction with an immersive SK-II City experience, where one could stroll the virtual streets of Tokyo and watch “Vs.” in our virtual cinema.

Each view triggered a donation to SK-II’s #CHANGEDESTINY Fund supporting women owners of small businesses in Tokyo who had suffered due to Covid.

“Vs.” touched the hearts of millions to become the most successful #ChangeDestiny Campaign of all time amassing 1.4bn views globally, enjoying overwhelming positive consumer sentiment (99%) and driving up global sales by 11%.

• 970 organic PR stories globally in top publications including CNN and Vogue.

• Launch premieres delivering record-breaking viewership/engagement.

• Close to 1m consumers engaged in social media conversations.

• “VS” ranked among the top six Weibo movies in China!

• Pop-up stores delivered 50% incremental traffic and 15% incremental new users.

SK-II’s campaign also proved its deep cultural relevance in an unplanned way when gymnast Simone Biles, captured the world’s attention upon withdrawing from Olympic competitions due to mental-health demons. She then came back to win a medal and show how you can #changedestiny.