Vaseline educates women about skin protection

The biggest obstacle, especially amongst category non-users, was the lack of awareness about problems caused when the skin is neglected. This could only be resolved only by Vaseline constantly educating and engaging with them.

Skin brands enjoy high levels of consumer loyalty. Once discovered, consumers grow to trust a certain brand and stick with it until they have strong cause to choose another. However, loyal consumers also pose a challenge for brands that want to increase their market share.

To overcome this, it was essential for Vaseline to establish its credentials as a leading authority on skin beauty and position itself at the forefront of consumers' minds. To move beyond its petroleum jelly associations, Vaseline had released a number of major product innovations in the sub-categories of 'whitening lotions' and 'moisturising lotions' aimed at the urban and semi-urban Malaysian woman.

Multi-taskers

Middle-to-upper income Malaysian women aged 25 years and above are multi-taskers. Work is a big part of their lives, as was their responsibilities towards the family. In the constant endeavour to fulfil both roles, they often ended up having very little time for themselves.

In this precious 'me time' this group avidly seek and consume content on multiple categories like communication, entertainment, information, leisure, productivity which can help them become a better person, both inside and out. Vaseline saw the opportunity to become part of the modern Malaysian woman's 'me time' with relevant and authentic content delivered on a credible platform.

Research showed that nearly half of women strongly agree that the internet helped them take control of their daily lives. But while Vaseline's Malaysian audience was getting onto the internet in increasing numbers, there was no online content centre for them to get their daily lifestyle and beauty news fixes in the limited 'me time' that they had. Vaseline exploited this opportunity by bringing in authentic and relevant content through Yahoo! Malaysia which, with a user-base of over 1.5 million women locally, enjoyed a high amount of credibility as Malaysia's top content portal with a strong following among the urban and semi-urban women.

A single space for news they can use

In April 2011, to coincide with the launch of Vaseline's 'SPF 24' lotion, Vaseline and Yahoo! Malaysia came together to create Malaysia's first-ever Custom Branded Experience (CBE) platform named "Amazing You" , to mirror the brand positioning of 'keeping skin amazing'.

Vaseline's 'Amazing You' CBE provided a single space where women could get lifestyle and beauty news and engage with brand initiatives. Original beauty and lifestyle related content was provided by the Yahoo! editorial team while product information was contributed by the Vaseline. Online and offline traffic drivers were used to help the audience discover the CBE. Targeted display running across the Yahoo! network, Nuffnang blogger network and behavioural-targeted banners on Tribal Fusion built visibility.

Paid search on Google and Yahoo! using product, beauty and lifestyle keywords drove audiences to the CBE. Yahoo! Homepage lead-ins played a key part in building the audience base. Visitors to the CBE were involved through a series of frequently-updated articles related to beauty and skin. Video banners showcased latest TVCs and an interactive banner brought the product benefits to life on screen.

The product page gave information on the Vaseline variants, while polls and quizzes tested their knowledge and awareness on skin beauty-related topics. There was also a section devoted to discussions and skin beauty Q&A. A coupon of MYR3.00 on the CBE acted as an incentive for visitors to head to their nearest store and redeem it for a bottle of Vaseline SPF24. This was activated through Vaseline's tie-ups with Watson's and Guardian's, two key pharmacy chains in Malaysia. Visitors were encouraged to share articles and tips from the CBE through Facebook and Twitter links on each article.

Results

The Vaseline SPF24 campaign, along with the CBE, helped brand sales and established Vaseline as a leading authority on skin care. Value market share grew 10% in Q1 2011 to a brand high of 16% by end of Q2, taking the brand to #2 in the category. Category competitors remained stagnant for the same period.

The Vaseline-Yahoo! CBE achieved its 6-month KPIs of 100 000 unique visitors within 2.5 months. By mid-July, the CBE had more than 103 000 unique visitors, which increased to 137 000 by the end of August.

By August, visitors had spent a total of 3800 hours on the site, averaging 3 minutes per visitor (higher than average for the Yahoo! Portal)

The Yahoo! homepage lead-in earned media delivered PR value of MYR 900 000 with minimal investment.