Women’s skincare brand Super Facialist approached Squad with aspirations to wipe the smile off the big brands’ faces. Success depends on driving sales growth in Boots, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Morrisons and Boohoo, and Super Facialist’s website. But their budget is only a fraction of L’Oreal, Nivea, Garnier, Olay or No7’s.
Challenge
Our goal was to establish Super Facialist as a leading challenger brand. Doing more with less meant disrupting the category conventions to connect with everyday women.
The market is saturated with false promises and unrealistic images of beauty. Most women lead busy lives, and making time for themselves is hard. They don’t have the time or the attention for science lessons. We wanted to smash the barriers to great skin and make facialist-quality formulations accessible to more women.
A facialist in your bathroom
Super Facialist’s brand name, and its heritage of association with facialists, is a fantastic asset. We nailed down their position as ‘A facialist in your bathroom’.
We immersed ourselves in our women’s skincare regimens and their lives. We figured that no one was falling for the mysterious baby-free brunching of Sex in The City anymore. Our women get Motherland and Fleabag. They can laugh at these women because they’re able to laugh at themselves. And many love their laughter lines, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t try and keep them in check. So we shared stories of flawed heroes, ditching the sterile science labs and the unobtainable, flawless beauty of typical skincare advertising. Instead, we took a comedic look at the often chaotic routines of women as they juggle work, family, social life and more – all while trying to look after their skin.
Two 20-second TV spots formed the focal point of the launch campaign, airing exclusively across Channel 4’s portfolio. The broader campaign included the intelligent application of data and format innovations in social and digital platforms, along with retailer point of sale.
"We were blown away by the creativity that we saw from Squad. The campaign that we’ve produced together positions Super Facialist completely differently from the traditional skincare competitor set and will accelerate our growth in the UK and internationally.”
Steph Clifford - Senior Brand Manager, Brand Architekts
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