Packaging

Henkel Beauty Care awarded a Bronze Nail at the ADC for the Shampoo without frills campaign

Monday 25. May 2020 - The fastest launch in the history of Henkel Beauty Care was awarded! After the digital satirical site Der Postillon claimed in November 2019 that Schwarzkopf had launched a new shampoo without frills, Henkel Beauty Care reacted immediately and realized a complete campaign within only 24 hours - without a media budget.

After only three weeks, the real market launch of an originally fictitious product persiflage took place. Together with the creative agency TBWA, Henkel Beauty Care launched a campaign in the social media that stands for exemplary real-time brand communication and has now received an award from the Art Directors Club (ADC).
A satire of the postilion, which invented a Schwarzkopf shampoo with the product name “no frills” and thus alluded to the beauty industry’s ever-increasing performance promises, triggered a social media campaign at Henkel Beauty Care that was developed together with the creative agency TBWA and went live on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram within just 24 hours. A simple advertising film was produced that quoted the text of the Postillon article (“a shampoo that simply cleans the goddamn hair and nothing else”) and announced a competition in which you could win one of the shampoos without any frills. In a video shot by the internal Henkel Beauty Care Content Factory, Chief Marketing Officer Rik Strubel explained in a humorous way how this special shampoo came about. Both films went viral on the social media channels within a very short time. “This quick reaction was the result of joint teamwork. It worked so well because every employee feels called upon to actively contribute ideas, to break new ground and to take risks,” reports Rik Strubel.
Major retail customers such as DM, Rewe, Kaufland and Budnikowsky heard about the campaign via the social media and actually wanted to order this extraordinary shampoo, even though it did not yet exist. Without further ado, the Henkel team produced a small series in just three weeks and delivered it to the retailers. “That was the fastest product launch we have ever made at Henkel. The edition was out of stock within a few hours, but it attracted a lot of attention on the Internet and in the press. So bold real-time communication clearly pays off in a social media context,” says Dr. Nils Daecke, Vice President Digital at Henkel Beauty Care.
The topic “Shampoo without frills” developed into a trending topic on Google, achieving a print reach of more than four million and a social media and online reach of over 11 million. The award of the bronze nail by the Art Directors Club honors the courageous real-time brand communication of Henkel in cooperation with its creative partner TBWA.