Nivea Touts Skincare Expertise

Wilton, Conn. — Beiersdorf AG celebrates 100 years of its Nivea skincare brand with a global program that began in May and runs throughout 2011. The Hamburg, Germany-based company is pumping 70% of its 1 billion euro 2011 marketing budget on the Nivea "100 Years of Skincare For Life" promotion.Beiersdorf signed pop music superstar Rihanna as a spokesperson and is sponsoring her "Loud" tour of Europe and the United States. Rihanna's image is a key feature on social media, packaging and displays, says Beiersdorf USA trade marketing manager Diana Arena. Nivea included 10 million codes on POS packaging in more than 40 countries. Consumers redeemed the codes on the Nivea website for exclusive Rihanna downloads – including 1 million music downloads, wallpaper and photos.The Nivea U.S. marketing team partnered with 19 retailers across the food, drug and mass channels to activate in-store promotions that have and will include lobby posters, endcaps, discounts, rebates, security shrouds and 8 million stickers placed on shelved products. The stickers also featured a code that consumers enter at Niveausa.com to enter a contest that awards two grand-prize trips to Prague for a Rihanna concert. On Facebook, consumers could "Like" Nivea and enter the "Skin2skin challenge" for the same concert sweepstakes.Arena says the program has shown results, because Nivea's U.S. share of the hand and body lotion category rose 2.6 points to 9.5% during the campaign's activation at Walgreens from June 26 to July 30.Arena says the anniversary was too important to limit channels. "In the past when we activated shopper marketing, a lot of times we were selective about class of trade. This time we wanted a broad reach to get the message out everywhere."Beiersdorf conducted an International Skin Survey of 8,000 men and women from different countries. Survey results showed a link between personality and perceived skin type and identified five "skin personalities." Beiersdorf used those findings to make skincare the focus of the campaign. Arena says four pillars guided the marketing strategy: generating incremental sales to continue Nivea's status as the fastest-growing skincare company in the U.S., generating high-range awareness of Nivea's history and future, creating customized programs, and strengthening shopper loyalty as well as account satisfaction."We're making sure what we're doing on the marketing side really integrates with our customer initiatives," she says. "If the shopper is happy, the customer is happy and we're happy. We have multiple categories that we play in, so the benefit goes beyond our hand and body lotions. We also get the benefit in our body wash business and in our lipcare business."Draftfcb, Chicago and New York, serves as lead global agency, managing TV, social media, retail and print activity. Nivea devoted 10% of the campaign budget to digital activities using partner Blast Radius, Vancouver.Draftfcb helped create TV spots featuring Rihanna's "California King Bed" (the campaign's theme song) as well as print ads and advertorials, while Nivea appeared at 16 of Rihanna's U.S. tour stops to offer product samples, Rihanna tattoos and product information.According to Laura Cammarota, consultant, shopper marketing, for Beiersdorf USA, there are 27 unique shopper marketing programs in the campaign, and 20 custom displays.For example, Nivea secured a five-week endcap program at Walgreens that included feature ads in circulars and beauty countertop signage, as well as the support of Walgreens beauty advisors promoting the campaign and product in 7,500 stores. Walgreens supplied lobby posters at store entrances and worked with Nivea to create banners at Walgreens.com that guided consumers to Niveausa.com to enter the Rihanna sweeps. "We worked with [Walgreens] on its key strategies, which are to build shopper loyalty, elevate beauty credentials, and drive the digital experience," says Cammarota.Beiersdorf declined to name the display manufacturers, but Carmody & Long, New York, handled the creative. Among Nivea's other retail partners: Duane Reade, CVS/pharmacy, ShopRite, Target, Walmart, Stop & Shop, Giant, Kroger and Rite Aid.

Nivea Touts Skincare Expertise

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