GOLD

Clean & Clear, "Girl’s Night In," Initiative (Local)

Clean & Clear had a vision to become the #1 Teen skincare brand within the MENA (Middle East North Africa) region. Regionally, skincare for teenage girls is very basic, many are apt to use only soap and water when breakouts occur. Clean & Clear wanted to recruit new users from 12+ years and get them to switch to a more regimented skincare routine. At the same time Clean & Clear’s market share was being threatened by Garnier and Himalaya who have both introduced new products with heavy advertising support aimed at Teens within the region. 2013 was positioned to be a challenging year, but the brand objective was clear, they needed to find an efficient way to connect with teen girls in the Middle East. Teen girls living in the Middle East are not so different from teens living anywhere else. They love the same music, movies and pop icons. However, in the Middle East, there are no traditional ‘teen media’ outlets targeted specifically to like Teen Vogue or Seventeen magazine. In conservative countries such as Saudi Arabia, teens are heavily restricted, especially young women who are not allowed to go out alone or interact socially with the opposite gender. As a result, most of their entertainment takes place at home where they are allowed supervised visits with close friends. Despite these restrictions, teenage girls in the Middle East have a lot of fun. But being a teenager isn’t always easy. They have a lot of new responsibilities like harder classes, not to mention big changes happening to their skin. The one thing that helps them cope with new responsibilities and changes is her best friend. Based on this knowledge, Clean & Clear developed a strategy they coined “BFF”, based on the insight that “everything is better with my best friend.” The strategy was to integrate Clean & Clear into their teen target’s fun friend moments and create experiences BFFs can share together. They knew the best place to reach the teen girl audience was in the home. They also knew that a favorite pastime was to enjoy a ‘girls’ night in’ complete with laughs, snacks and a movie. So Clean & Clear partnered with one of the region’s lead female TV channels to sponsor their weekend movie on a long-term basis. Clean & Clear were not looking for a typical package with a fixed number of spots and promos. They needed our sponsorship to infuse digital and bring our BFF strategy to life. Clean & Clear, together with their TV partner, quite literally created the region’s only teen medium and branded it ‘Girls’ Night In.’ The 26-week sponsorship became much more than a list of weekly movies. It was an entire in-home movie platform where teens can digitally interact with the movies and the brand and share memorable experiences. Each week, teenage girls go to Clean & Clear Arabia’s Facebook brand page to prepare for the perfect “Girls Night In.” They can vote for which movie will air the following Friday night and dedicate it to their BFF with a personalized message. The girls are involved with choosing the film, and have the option of dedicating the film to their BFF and winning Clean & Clear prizes. Over the first 8 weeks, ‘Girls Night In’ posts received a total of 62,083 likes, averaging 7,760 per week. Clean & Clear Arabia’s Facebook Fans increased by 35% in less than one month and continues to grow as more Teen girls participate in ‘Girls’ Night In’