In 2019, Ban Antiperspirant Roll-On Deodorants’ advertising focused on a range of benefits to attract new customers. This year we adapted messaging to better showcase why consumers were already purchasing the product. For them, what sets Ban apart from its top competitors (Old Spice, Dove, Secret, and Degree) and why they love Ban so much is the fact that it leaves no white residue. As #TheClearChoice for everyone, we expanded targeting from solely U.S. Hispanics and African Americans to all women 18+ in the U.S. Conceptually, we sought to be unapologetically humorous, entertaining, and relatable to connect with consumers. Execution-wise, we sought to maximize reach and awareness of the Ban Roll-On brand through tactical social placements. Based on industry standards, our primary KPI was a CPM of $3.00.
We set out to target our audience with mass awareness to get in front of as many consumers as possible. However, we excluded natural deodorant interests to focus on the antiperspirant market and go after our main four competitors.
Based on learnings about our audience’s social media consumption patterns, we opted for an always-on media delivery consisting of placements on Facebook feed, Instagram feed and Instagram stories, complemented with a Pinterest test campaign. Placement optimization was used for the FB/IG paid media to ensure delivery was efficient against the desired reach KPI. We also ran in six-week campaign periods to match up with the purchase cycle of CPG products.
A SWOT analysis was developed to uncover industry trends and identify the spaces of the market already successfully dominated by other brands. We paid particular attention to what we called the “dry humor landscape”, aka what people are joking, saying, and talking about in the deodorant world.
Using social listening, we found that about 85% of all monthly online deodorant conversations are aimed at being funny, yet few brands were capitalizing on this. We also reviewed the Ban community’s comments and completed in-depth competitor analysis on what the competition was posting to their social media platforms—and how users were reacting. All of this helped us find our perfect formula, which was the crossroads of real women (of all ages and body types), “dry” humor, and no white residue.
IMPLEMENTATION
All creative conveyed Ban was #TheClearChoice with no white residue. That it goes on clear and stays clear. We started with a new manifesto in a playful, yet straight up manner, which was reflected in the tone of voice. It was centered around the fact that transparency is a word often thrown around with little to back it up. We went on to describe how Ban is comedically getting to the bottom of transparency—in marketing and deodorant.
We called out the competitors claiming to be “see-through” when in reality, their gooey, white residue clumps slide into your underarms. The chunks that cozy on up to the contours of your pits, your clothes, and all the nooks and crannies. We showed consumers why they should roll with the real (clean) deal—Ban.
Visually, the new look and feel pushed our unapologetic humor to carve out space for Ban as the fun, funny female-focused deodorant. We aimed for authenticity that spoke directly to our consumers’ pain points. Model diversity was extremely important. We wanted to empower real women of all shapes, sizes, and ages. We primarily starred women of color in social posts with their full-on silliness and awkwardness to create those moments of relatability.
Based on our real-time reporting data, we ultimately shifted from still images to motion to create more engaging content and increase brand recognition. Per Facebook’s best practices, we kept the product front and center and leaned heavily into our brand colors and signature music track.
We exceeded our main KPI to achieve (CPM of $3.00) with an average of $2.03 (32% below benchmark).
COVID-19 has led to a ~15% unit (usage) decline in the Antiperspirant category, however, Ban is showing trends in the opposite direction. Ban Buying Household penetration grew +5% P26W. This means we were able to increase our buying pool for the first time in multiple years.
Increased efficiency in marketing dollars was a big player in the success of this campaign. CPMs were down 37% for Facebook/Instagram, which was the primary vehicle for the campaign. This resulted in Ban obtaining +31.6M more reach (with steady frequency) with similar spend as the previous year.
The campaign reached 68% of the audience by generating 700M impressions with a unique reach of 59.6M.
The latest Facebook brand lift study showed a Purchase Intent increase of 0.9 points with a 94% significance, above the 0.7 CPG norm. The Pinterest brand lift study showed even stronger results with a +2.9 increase in Aided Awareness and a +0.8 increase in Purchase Intent.
