#Hashtag Asia Awards 2021 highlight: Pantene ditches stereotypical use of women in witty ad

To convince Indonesian women to include a conditioner as part of their hair care routine, Pantene, together with dentsu Indonesia, launched a campaign to introduce a new line of hair care products targeted at Gen Z and Millenials. The campaign was so well received that it clinched the gold award for Best Use of Social Media for Campaign and achieved a finalist position for Best Use of Social Media Platforms at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s Hashtag Asia 2021 Awards.

Challenge

Despite hair conditioners being a bathroom staple for most women, it is rarely included in the hair care routine of Indonesian women, who believe that shampoo alone is good enough. Adding to the belief that conditioners are unnecessary is the myriad of all-in-one hair care products in the market that promise to deliver results without additional products. Pantene also faced the challenge of communication clutter in a highly saturated market, making it difficult to get its marketing messages across to consumers. 

Solution

To break through the communication clutter and to encourage the use of hair conditioner among Indonesian women, Pantene introduced the Pantene Miracle line of hair care products consisting of the first-ever hair supplement for daily usage (hair conditioner) and weekly usage (hair mask) targeted at Gen Z and Millennials.

Pantene realised that it needed a new communication strategy to make this product launch a success. To showcase the benefits of the Pantene Miracle products, Pantene’s campaign messages focused on transforming Tired Hair (#RambutCapek) to Charged Hair (#RambutKecharged) and ultimately, saving women from bad hair that can ruin their mood for the entire day.

To cut through the media clutter, Pantene decided to abandon the stereotypical use of beautiful women to showcase its haircare product benefits. Instead, Keanu Angelo, a content creator well known for his bad temperament and long, unruly hair, was chosen instead. The campaign focused on transforming Keanu into a Pantene celebrity by helping him manage his unruly hair.

Execution

The campaign started off with Keanu complaining about his hair woes to his followers who kindly share haircare tips to help him but to no avail. Pantene then responded to his call for help and offered him a role as Pantene’s next celebrity by transforming his hair. Keanu then announced to his followers to anticipate his first commercial as a Pantene celebrity. Finally, a 60-second commercial was launched on YouTube, showcasing Keanu’s hair transformation from #RambutCapek to #RambutKecharged. Multiple vertical edits were also created for popular social networking platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.

Results 

The campaign was a success. The commercial garnered more than 23 million views across various social media platforms in less than 24 hours of its launch. The commercial also achieved the highest engagement rate in the history of all P&G ads on YouTube with 780,493 views and 4,986 user comments. The success of the campaign led to Pantene Miracle products being sold out nationwide on the first week after the launch of the commercial and sales increase by $187% within a month, ultimately achieving its goal of cutting through media clutter and changing their target audience’s long-standing, negative beliefs about hair conditioning products.