#Hashtag Asia Awards 2021 highlight: How Eskinol's interactive social quiz piqued younger gen interest

In conjunction with the launch of Eskinol Naturals, a set of all-in-one micellar water and facial wash featuring all natural ingredients, the brand, together with Mindshare Philippines, launched a campaign to shift the perception of Eskinol being a heritage brand to a brand of youth and innovation. The campaign was so successful in engaging its audience and resonating with the aspirations and needs of Filipino Gen Z and young Millennials that it won silver for Best Social Media Channel Campaign: Twitter and was a finalist for Best Use of Social Media for Campaign at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s Hashtag Asia 2021 Awards.

Challenge

With Eskinol being anchored as a heritage brand, its product offering strayed away from the skincare needs of Gen Z and younger Millennials. To add to this challenge, Eskinol was only present in one of the many subcategories of skincare while its competitors dominated other categories such as serums and eye care. With search trends revealing that consumer purchase decisions went beyond just brand names and many people were looking for an elevated product story coupled with quality natural ingredients, Eskinol needed to reinvent itself to reach out to the younger population and inspire them to reach their aspirations.

Solution

Eskinol chose Twitter as its primary social media platform for the campaign as they knew that their core audience spent a great amount of time on Twitter discussing beauty. With 69% of Millennials and Gen Z on Twitter purchasing skincare products on a monthly basis, Eskinol knew that it could leverage Twitter to drive awareness and conversation around the Eskinol Naturals product launch. Eskinol also recognised that Twitter could enable the brand to be part of the beauty conversation authentically. In the Philippines alone, there were more than 800,000 tweets on the topic of beauty and personal care. This signified that many beauty-related conversations were taking place on Twitter. 

Eskinol’s Twitter-led campaign incorporated a Tease-Reveal-Reinforce formula which featured Filipina celebrity Maris Racal to launch the new Naturals skincare line. Maris Racal was the perfect ambassador as she was popular among youths and was known for her bright personality. Eskinol hoped to leverage the genuine relationship she had with her broad fanbase and drive anticipation for the campaign among the campaign’s core audience. 

Execution

The campaign kicked off with a teaser of Maris Racal announcing that she had an exciting secret to share, using the hashtag #sanaAll. At the same time, Eskinol stirred excitement by using Tweet Allow listing, which enabled the promotion of Maris Racal’s Tweet. 

To reveal the new Naturals skincare products, Eskinol used Trend Takeover and Timeline Takeover using the full campaign hashtag #SanaAllwithEskinol to place its campaign launch tweet at the top of Twitter’s trend list for 24 hours. By grabbing the first impression of the day, the campaign achieved high visibility, drove mass awareness for the Naturals line and showcased its benefits. 

To reinforce the campaign, Maris Racal was featured in a Twitter Serye (a Twitter Threads series that unfolded like a soap opera) about love, career and self-care regimes that featured Eskinol Naturals. This effectively utilised the Twitter Thread function. At the end of the Serye, Eskinol engaged users by using video ads with a poll to ask them what was important to their true selves. 

Lastly, Eskinol quizzed users on what they hoped to achieve by using Eskinol Naturals. Through video ads with conversation buttons, users could click on a custom hashtag, post their answers as a tweet and be rewarded with a unique, encouraging auto-response message from Eskinol. Eskinol also drove momentum for the launch with image carousel ads which showcased three products to encourage purchase. 

Results

The campaign was a success on multiple fronts. It drew 41.6 million impressions and 384,000 engagements across the campaign period. Among its core audience, there was a 20% surge in ad recall and positive brand sentiment was lifted by 80%. Ultimately, the carefully crafted campaign achieved its goals of shifting brand perception and creating meaningful engagement with Gen Zs and Millennials.