Overview

While the beauty category and skincare specifically were growing, Advanced Night Repair, a historic Estée Lauder product and pioneer of the serum category, was not gaining market share. By leveraging an idea that met the consumer at an intersection between need, lifestyle and cultural context, the Power of Night campaign reasserted the brand’s relevancy to consumers. The campaign resonated globally, re-establishing expertise and excellence while growing sales and market share even with price increases.

Challenge

ANR needed a new global narrative to drive relevance and replace the DNA science story that had powered its growth.

Advanced Night Repair (ANR) was the #1 selling facial serum globally. Introduced by Estée Lauder in 1982, its formulation was a scientific beauty breakthrough using the body’s natural chemistry to repair skin cells during the night and reduce aging. But after many successful decades, the brand’s growth was flattening and failing to gain market share. Several culprits were to blame. For several years, ANR leveraged a DNA science story, which enhanced brand credibility of cutting edge and pioneering. No longer able to substantiate DNA specifically, there was a need to find a replacement reason to believe. In addition, the basic premise of night-time care had not fully penetrated in many geographies making ANR vulnerable to the latest science story to catch consumer’s attention. There was increasing competitive activity on a global and regional scale, from Lancome Genefique to APAC specific brands like Pose and Kola, finding new angles such as insinuating gene-level repair (Genefique), and immunity (Shiseido Ultimune). To re-ignite growth, the brand needed a new narrative that would reassert the relevance of night-time care and ANR’s scientific credentials to fend off challengers.

Insight

Our consumer was between 2 opposing cultural forces: a growing awareness of a relationship between wellness and sleep versus the pace of an always on lifestyle. 

For decades lack of sleep had been celebrated as a badge of conscientiousness. Scientific studies were proving otherwise and sleep became a celebrated tenet of wellness in popular culture and commerce. From weighted security blankets, to countless apps, to the creation of a mattress DTC super brand, sleep had become a “measure of success”.

For skincare specifically, Estée Lauder proved out the adage “beauty sleep”. In a global study, Estée Lauder proved that poor sleepers had increased signs of skin ageing. While recovery of good quality sleepers was 30% higher than poor quality sleepers. Conversely in modern global culture, today’s female consumer was living an always-on lifestyle. In fact, 51% of the global population suffered from insufficient sleep (Source 5). While there is a self-admission to the impact of the lifestyle, there is also an acknowledgement and acceptance for behaviour that will not change. “I know night is the best time for repair. But night is so limited and can’t change by myself.”

Strategy & Approach

Power of Night reframes the night from a time of passive repose to a productive time for essential repair.

Since sleep deficiency was a global issue experienced by our modern female target, we let our Power of Night story and the science behind it lead the way. This relatable framing and celebration of putting night to work could then flex to accommodate different regions’ interests. We could go into the science, ingredients and formulation in some regions, while playing up education and establishing the need for a serum within a lifestyle context in others. As the campaign evolved for three consecutive years, our narrative evolved from an awareness prompt to a deeper conversation while maintaining the essential core idea.

Solution

We launched our campaign – The Power of Night – as a call to action for women to put the night to work. It was a celebration of rest, balance and a reinvention and reclaiming of “beauty sleep” backed by culture and science. With an ambitious goal to “own the night” in the hearts and minds of consumers and for ANR to become synonymous with the night, we set about delivering this in three distinct phases, each phase designed to drill down further and further to non-users and address barriers:

Phase 1: Power Signal

This phase highlighted ANR’s ability to cue/signal your skin to commence with its natural ability to regenerate and repair at night.

Phase 2: Maximize Beauty Sleep

In this phase, ANR helps to combat the strains and impact of a hectic modern lifestyle by maximizing every second of beauty sleep

Phase 3: Skin on Schedule

With a relatively low awareness of a body’s circadian rhythms, this phase sought to inform consumers that ANR can help your skin get back on schedule (protects by day/repairs at night), even when anon-stop life challenges that natural rhythm.

All three phases of the campaign followed a 360 marketing framework to Initiate, Attract, Engage and Retain. Assets were created and categorized accordingly with each stage, with different suites of assets that spoke to different consumer groups across the globe appropriately. APAC had a much higher penetration of serum and skincare savvy consumer who wanted scientific and technological superiority. While in the rest of the world, with a much lower adoption of serum, a consumer required education around what a serum is and why they should even use it. 

Results & Learning

Sales for Advanced Night Repair increased 45% globally and gained 2.4 points average of market share in 4 regions.

The Power of Night campaign was a longterm strategic idea and framework, with a big enough story to warrant building over time. Designed to tap into a cultural tension, the campaign came to life in

well-coordinated 360 marketing efforts year on year. Multi-phased launches that included scientific outreach, influencer collaborations, in store, social, online, and ATL meant the consumer was engaged

through multiple touch points and at different stages of the purchase funnel.