digital first doesn't mean consumer second

The challenge was to launch Olay Anti-Ageing solutions, in a fiercely competitive, crowded,  market, such as India, with the added dare of heavily reduced reliance on traditional media budgets. To add to this was the fact that reeling under choice & attribute  overload, and a battle of who shouts the loudest, to most, Olay felt undifferentiated & functional.

We needed to understand people’s realities better & creatively discover the best solutions to respond to them. Data helped identify the best potential source of growth - our High Value Audience as the Active Maintenance Seeker, women between 25-35 yr. keen to fight the telltale signs of aging and feel on top of their game.  

Context Architecture to Drive Emotional Relevance 
Anti-ageing, is not just an issue to fight to preserve one’s skin. It is a fight to preserve one’s dignity, strengths, quirks, and above all, to be acknowledged and respected for one’s achievements & knowledge. There was nothing more frustrating than for her to know (fully well!) how smart she is – but for others to not know it well enough. She was thus constantly engaged in a cycle of collecting and sharing knowledge, the all-important cycle of “Batana –Batorna”; ‘sharing to collect’ & ‘collecting to share’ knowledge. The perception of being seen as ‘knowledgeable’ to her peers being the ultimate social currency she desired. This insight helped prioritize social strategy, while placing disproportionate efforts on enabling sharing of her opinions, reviews and experiences.

Connections Architecture to Deliver the Message at the Right Place

• Digital (Mobile) is her No. 1 ally in the journey of collecting – sharing information (Batana Batorna). Recommendation included shifting spends away from TV and towards mobile.
• When it came to TV, the medium with the highest investments hitherto, it was a revelation to observe that she hardly ever watched it. While it remained switched on as she went about her chores at home, she used it more as a radio than a visual medium. Recommendation included finding & using stronger audio led skin care language as opposed to the visual communication that was predominant on TV.
• Spending hours driving through the city in her car meant that her choice of media was radio. And her craving for conversations & entertainment was satisfied through the celebrity led talk shows on radio. Recommendation included using radio and the Olay celebrities to drive conversations about taking care of oneself and having the confidence to express oneself.
• In store was the place that registered the biggest path to purchase drop offs. Recommendation included upskilling and training personnel at beauty counters and providing demo tools to drive home product efficacy.  

Content Architecture to Co-opt People in Telling & Extending the Brand Story When it came to beauty & anti-ageing, it was all about the feeling that she was a part of an inner circle of celebrities/ brand and that she was being invited into their lives for her to share what she knows and to gather more information to fuel her social connects. Recommendation included equipping her with beauty information & inspiration, the back stories she loved, and facilitating  peer to peer sharing of information she had to offer,  so that their receptivity to brand messaging is enhanced exponentially. The intention was to help her in her goal to be seen as ‘with it’ and ‘in the know’.
 
And the Result? With the challenge to create superior consumer experiences and reduce the reliance on traditional media budgets, this equity based Communications Plan laid the foundation of digital first launch in the  Marketing Plans for Olay in one of its biggest markets in APAC, India. The Experience Centered Path to Purchase, provided actionable ideas to drive relevance and move people through the purchase funnel right through to advocacy with a digital first launch that got social and search to talk to each other in aiding the journey of Batana (sharing)–Batorna (gathering). The work influenced creative development with stronger audio cues being put in place & influenced in-store experience design and training of the beauty consultants. Called out as being ‘the exceptional agency deliverable’ by P&G in annual evaluations, the work was scaled beyond India, and influenced marketing plans for Olay across APAC. Most importantly it helped illustrate the point that digital First should never come to mean Consumer Second.