2013

beiersdorf recruits brand ambassadors for the

launch of nivea vital Word-of-mouth advocacy drives

Boots sales of £1m in 13 weeks

To launch its anti-ageing face care range Nivea Vital, the beauty brand needed a strategy to create strong product endorsement among its target audience of 55+ women.

MEDIA AGENCY

PUBLISHER

PLATFORM

AUDIENCE

OBJECTIVE

MEDIA USAGE

MAGAZINES

MEC Global

Hearst Magazines UK

Print gatefold, editorial partnership, peer-to-peeradvocacy, sampling

55+ women

Launch new anti-ageing cream

Magazines

Good Housekeeping

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Good Housekeeping has its own highly-respect-ed endorsement scheme, the Good Housekeep-ing Institute, with products recommended by its team and readers. So rather than talking to its audience through traditional display advertising, Nivea encouraged trial, trust and take-up by asking them to do the talking. From an initial product trial involving 150 Good Housekeeping readers, the magazine recruited three to continue using the range over a six-week period. These Nivea Vital brand ambassadors featured in a series of three four-page gatefold advertorials. Alongside information about the product, each woman shared her lifestyle, skin type beauty routine, and experience of the range. With monthly updates, the campaign concluded with the magazine’s first ever inside front cover gate-fold featuring Nivea Vital, as well as product samples being distributed to Good Housekeep-ing’s 212k subscribers. The campaign’s success was affirmed with Nivea Vital being awarded the Good Housekeeping Reader Recommended logo, a highly valuable customer endorsement that could be included in future marketing.

The advertising and sampling campaign achieved £1m of UK retail sales within Boots in just 13 weeks. The brand advocacy and GHI endorsement had a carry-over effect as well: 73 per cent of respondents who tried the Nivea Vital range said they’d recom-mend it to a friend.

A beauty cream’s reputation as a ‘super-product’ can make a world of difference in generating retail sales. In order to achieve rapid penetration of its core audience of 55+ female shoppers at Boots – exclusive stockist for the range – Nivea embarked on a campaign with Good Housekeeping.