CeraVe scored probably the greatest campaigns at this yr’s Super Bowl with a delightfully weird spot centered on Michael Cera. The brand’s first big game ad succeeded at constructing buzz with a strategy that leaned on social and earned media within the weeks leading as much as the fundamental event.
The L’Oréal skincare brand is back with a recent campaign that uses a similar approach and appears to get in front of consumers as Hollywood blockbuster season begins. Instead of floating a fake founder, CeraVe this time around has positioned itself as one half of a romantic comedy couple, including through a movie teaser-like ad.
The tropes within the trailer for “The One Under the Sun” shall be familiar to most consumers, whether or not they’re rom-com novices or went to the theater and helped turn “Anyone But You” into a surprise smash. In the video, an adorkable young woman, aided by two sassy friends, looks for love in someone “wealthy but not greasy,” who is not “one other summer fling” and “protects [her] at all times.”
Then, there’s a meet-cute, because the protagonist falls in front of matchmaker — and real-life dermatologist — Dr. Wallace Nozile. But on this “unexpected love story,” the match isn’t a beau but a bottle. As the lady slathers CeraVe Facial Moisturizing Lotion over her face at dinner, a friend quips, “At least she’s using protection.”
For CeraVe and agency 72andSunny, producing a trailer for a fake rom-com made perfect sense because the brand — like countless others — wants to have interaction younger consumers for whom the “skip ad” button has turn out to be a favorite, explained Adam Kornblum, senior vp and global head of digital marketing at CeraVe.
“Let’s be real: Consumers are uninterested in traditional promoting,” the chief said. “The query was, how will we hack this type of traditional promoting? How can we disguise our message in something entertaining?”
CeraVe looked to how Hollywood does it, leaning on the straightforward insight that movie trailers have a higher watch-through rate than traditional ads on YouTube. A rom-com format allowed the brand to blur the lines between promoting, entertainment and education, while also leveraging the recognition of reality dating shows.
“Rom-coms are generally relatable, they’re playful, but yet they touch on serious topics, and that’s also the CeraVe brand as well, so the [brand’s] personality really aligns to the theme,” Kornblum said.
Amplifying media
CeraVe’s Super Bowl campaign cut through the slog of pre-game teasers and trailers by amplifying paid media with earned media. The multichannel rollout included headline-grabbing Instagram videos, paparazzi photos, influencer unboxings and podcast appearances.
For “The One Under the Sun,” the brand is tapping into influencers, reality show stars and “dermfluencers” across social channels. Elements include a launch on Nozile’s TikTok, movie poster designers whose work shall be utilized in out-of-home activations and movie reviewers who will post their takes on the trailer. The campaign will appear in select movie theaters across the country and run through June, with additional promotion on social, digital and streaming platforms.
While the brand’s last campaign relied on meme accounts and conspiracy theorists to instigate earned media across the Michael Cera-CeraVe connection, the rom-com effort will play up double entendres that blend product advantages with genre sentiments: A “partner that doesn’t smell bad” for a fragrance-free formula and “not only a summer fling” for a year-round product with SPF 30 are some examples.
“[There are] cute ways to inform the story and speak to the product,” Kornblum said. “It’s just extending what we do from an influencer perspective.”
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