Case study: Initiative Thailand works with blogger to amp up sales of Neutrogena Ultrasheer

Background
In a market saturated with suncare products, the team at Initiative Thailand had to find a way to prove that Neutrogena’s UltraSheer sunblock was the best sunscreen on the shelf. Thai consumers are choosy about their sunscreens, demanding high SPF, high PA and a light texture. But inundated by brands making extravagant claims, consumers have learnt to ignore marketers and instead turn to online beauty bloggers for honest reviews.  Because consumers trust online product reviews, the agency decided to create a comparative review comparing Neutrogena’s sunscreen against other products.

Aim
To convince consumers of the superiority of that Neutrogena UltraSheer by leveraging the trust placed on online bloggers.

Execution
The team at Initiative decided to work with trusted Thai beauty blogger, One Way Ticket, to test the top five sunscreens on the market on her skin and blog about the process. The blogger was provided with documentation proving the effectiveness of the sunscreen, given the product to test and encouraged to write about it in her own style. The post went live in March 2011, two months after the sunscreen was initially launched. It was prominently featured on Pantip.com – a popular online beauty community in Thailand.

Results
The post went viral with over 700 comments and was shared via email forwards and covered in other beauty portals and in magazines with combined page views in the tens of millions. Neutrogena UltraSheer’s sales increased along with the blogger’s popularity.