Background
Hindustan Unilever (HUL) used to work with multiple digital agencies and some of their brands had a retainer relationship with this boutique social media agency called Windchimes. I inherited these brands when I joined the agency in 2013 and took over the strategic ideation for social media. Here’s a summary of our best work for HUL.
More Footfalls for Lakmé Salon
Back in 2013-14, Lakmé Salon aspired to generate more footfalls for services beyond haircuts. So, they launched a services package called The Runway Range, bundling Chocolate Wax, Cysteine Infusion, Youth Facial and Nail Art into an attractively priced offering. We designed a social media campaign called #RunwayReady, featuring contests on official brand pages, awarding salon vouchers and engaging influencers to spread the word.
The reach was further amplified by integrating in-salon promotions where customers were asked to share their #RunwayReady selfies after the service. The campaign successfully appealed to the right demographic, improving salon footfalls and even driving repeat-visits from an audience that had earlier been loyal to low-cost alternatives for services like waxing, hair spa and facials.
Other initiatives that contributed to increased footfalls include hyper-localised digital and mobile campaigns promoting bridal packages in North India during the wedding season and leveraging events like Lakmé Fashion Week to reinforce the runway expertise of the brand. We also supported new salon launches by offering free experientials to fashion and lifestyle bloggers, generating enough social media buzz to influence the target audience. The most successful launch from my tenure was Lakmé Absolute Salon at Bandra, Mumbai with the highest turnout of celebrities and influencers.
More Website Traffic for BeBeautiful
BeBeautiful, an online magazine with beauty, makeup, fitness and lifestyle content, targeted a readership of women to subtly promote HUL products within the content of hair and skin care regimes and makeup tutorials. Designed as a brand promotion asset with no direct selling at the time, our mandate as the agency was simply to drive relevant traffic to the website. While Facebook and Twitter made modest contributions to the objective, Pinterest surpassed expectations due to clickable pins that facilitated referral traffic.
More Social Media Chatter for Ponds
When I assumed control of Ponds’ social media management in 2013, my initial task was unifying disparate Facebook pages that incoherently represented different product lines. As a centralised brand page was established, we started creating monthly content schedules to maintain a cohesive share of voice, prioritising anti-aging products, face washes, and body lotions.
Interestingly, the most triumphant campaign came from body lotions. Leveraging the brand’s association with the movie ‘Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela’, we crafted a social media campaign called ‘Queen of Hearts’. We blended another ragingly popular interest at the time, Candy Crush, and created a Facebook application that seamlessly integrated Ponds body lotion products within the gameplay and offered a chance to win Deepika Padukone’s ghagra from the film, along with personalised merchandise autographed by Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone. A parallel IVR campaign offered a chance to meet and greet Ranveer Singh.
This campaign exemplified how strategic partnerships and integrations can yield social media success. It even eclipsed engagement levels seen during the social media campaigns for Ponds Femina Miss India and substantially boosted brand-related social media conversations.