​How do you increase sales with single digit unaided awareness, a limited market presence and big spending competitive brands?

Cetaphil had to change what they saw in the mirror. The brand had to evolve from clinical into a “go-to” lifestyle skincare beauty brand, poised to compete with the likes of Dove and Aveeno.   To do this, our communication needed to be consumer facing and engage prospects differently.  Our media needed to expand and reach new consumers and be competitive with established brands.

Don't Talk To Me Like a Doctor
We had to understand who this new, “non-clinical” target was.  We coined them as “avid skin protectors”. They weren't medicinal. They wanted to protect what they viewed as a critical element of beauty, their skin. These people are skincare savvy who are seeking products and information that improve her skin health and well-being and adjust their skin routines with the seasons.

She connects with brands through beauty authorities and experts who heavily influence our consumer’s purchase decisions – 62% trust beauty experts and 52% look to editors for advice. 

To get her attention we had to walk away from what we were doing and use a mix of media channels and partner activations that infused innovation, while fostering differentiation, defined a consumer path-to-purchase with the goal of driving consideration, trial, and advocacy The result of these changes would be the beginning of establishing Cetaphil as a power brand in the category.

Solving the problem
We needed to elevate Cetaphil to a leader in skincare through key Influential touchpoints. Using a 3-pillar strategic approach to surround the consumer with messaging in new channels based on findings and drive them to purchase:

  • Increase Brand Awareness & Engagement: Solve the awareness issue first. Use high impact and engaging media executions that speak to the consumer and make them take notice
  • Leverage Premium Partnerships (Branded Content)/Advocacy to develop aid in consumer connections: Take advantage of the experts our user reaches out to. Align Cetaphil with premium beauty & lifestyle partners and use influencers to encourage consumer/brand connection, allowing them to further experience the brand
  • Drive Point of Purchase/Trial: Influence purchase decisions in key moments through location-based mobile targeting, conditional targeting, and e-commerce partnerships


Media Touch Points & Activation

  • ​Awareness Drivers: An efficient balance of Traditional TV, Non-Linear Video through VOD/HULU/YouTube, and Programmatic. Non-linear channels allowed us to find cord-cutters and alternative video/content viewers.
  • Native and High Impact partners showcased more engaging formats, reaching consumers in premium environments and increased product and brand visibility
  • Authoritative alignment was created by activating 360 partnerships including promoted articles, video, influencers, and sponsorships, all designed to integrate Cetaphil into the consumer’s daily routine.
  • Lower-funnel action was achieved by pushing purchase through e-commerce, tech partners, and location based targeting along with review ads via Amazon.  Weather triggered ads drove people in store to purchase products relevant to the current weather.  Tech partners allowed us to identify a path-to-site for better targeting through a last touch attribution strategy


​Did it Work?

The campaign saw huge success. Performance was measured through sales lift, brand awareness, and growth in key site metrics (i.e., traffic, engagement, time spent and conversions).

  • Unit sales increased +8%, while category sales fell by >1%, despite an increase in price
  • Over 100%+ increase in hard conversions (i.e., coupon print, clicks to retailers and site engagements)
  • Website traffic for new users increased +31%
  • Brand awareness grew by +34%

Marketing & Media professional

David Fontana