- Procter & Gamble hair care brand Pantene teamed with social media personality Alix Earle for a limited-edition collection and campaign entitled “Unexpired Pantene,” per details shared with Marketing Dive.
- The campaign follows a viral TikTok post from Earle raving in regards to the effectiveness of an expired bottle of Pantene present in her family’s shower. The Unexpired collection was made available for a 24-hour period via a web-based sweepstakes starting April 30 at 11 a.m. ET.
- The effort also includes real-time updates on Pantene’s Instagram and TikTok channels and billboards in Times Square and The Oculus in New York City. The campaign comes as drugstore hair care products experience a lift in popularity stemming from social media.
With its latest campaign, Pantene is attempting to money in on what some are calling the “drugstore hair care renaissance,” or the recent rise in popularity of drugstore hair products over their premium counterparts. The movement is essentially credited to social media — and maybe the present state of the U.S. economy — adding a further layer of relevancy to Pantene’s tie-up with Earle, a creator with over 11 million followers across Instagram and TikTok combined.
However, it could possibly be argued that Earle’s organic review of (expired) Pantene spurred enough of a movement by itself, having led to the creation of over 180 additional pieces of organic user-generated content (UGC) from a wide range of creators also praising the P&G brand. With “Unexpired Pantene,” the marketer is asserting that if it may well go viral for a way well it really works when expired, “imagine it unexpired.”
Key to the campaign is a limited-edition collection of Pantene products available via a sweepstakes on an Unexpired landing page that kicked off on April 30 at 11 a.m. ET for a 24-hour period, a span of time meant to nod to how long an Instagram story is accessible. Pantene also overhauled its Instagram and TikTok channels to advertise the hassle and post real-time updates, and Earle shared additional content to her TikTok.
Additional UGC from creators including Madison Harwell and Jaelyn Kay was shared once the sweepstakes was live to showcase the products. To drive additional buzz, the brand had a billboard in Times Square until midnight on April 30 and The Oculus until May 1 at 11 a.m. ET. The “Unexpired Pantene” campaign is an example of how marketers can leverage organic social media content to forge a deeper reference to goal audiences, particularly digitally native demographics like Gen Z and millennials.
The global hair care market is anticipated to grow from $113.92 billion in 2025 to $213.47 billion by 2032, based on Fortune Business Insights. During that period, the supermarket/hypermarket segment is anticipated to carry the most important market share above specialty stores and online stores. Other hair brands have released marketing campaigns recently, including fellow drugstore brand CeraVe and premium players including Olaplex and Beyoncé’s Cécred.
P&G reported net sales of $19.8 billion in its third quarter fiscal 12 months 2025, a decrease of two% versus the 12 months prior. Beauty segment organic sales increased 2% versus the year-ago period, though hair care organic sales were unchanged. The lack of growth was attributed to increased pricing in Latin America and North America and a good premium product mix being offset by volume declines, primarily in Greater China.
Read the total article here
