Turning its pain point into a source of inspiration, CLEAR launched a nationwide campaign that focused on reducing stress — incidentally one of the leading causes of dandruff — from the lives of its consumers.
Objective
CLEAR, the anti-dandruff shampoo brand, is facing a tough challenge. Despite its long tenure in the market, the brand was losing relevance in the lives of its target consumers, especially among the younger gen Z. Securing the number one spot in a highly competitive category doesn't come without its fair share of stress.
The company first launched a mobile campaign to engage consumers while collecting first-party data from consumers. At this initial stage, CLEAR wanted to gain insights into its target demographic and their daily stressors, which would not only become part of the lyrics of the "Clear Your Head" song but also allow for retargeting/direct marketing even beyond the later stages of the campaign.
Context
Since 2021, both market share and brand power, particularly in the pillars of meaningfulness and affinity, have been declining. Extensive research also revealed that the brand's most significant decline in brand power occurred among the gen Z demographic.
Talking to Indonesian gen Z youth, following traditional ways of marketing, was no longer cutting it. CLEAR needed to explore effective strategies to connect with audiences of diverse interests. Personalizing their messaging was paramount for the right message to reach the right audience, thus moving potential customers down the funnel.
They needed the campaign to help them gather first-party data and provide data signals about their audiences. Eager to meet its young consumers in the world they inhabit virtually — mobile gaming — CLEAR collaborated with Digital Turbine for the latter's ad tech expertise and extensive gaming reach. For the first time, CLEAR leveraged cutting-edge Dynamic End Card technology to stage a mobile acquisition campaign."
Creative and Media Strategy
The Clear Your Head campaign targeted gen Z Indonesians. Now forming 30 percent of the population, gen Zs are touted as "disruptors" as they strive to break away from past norms and carve out their generation's identity — distinct from older generations.
Concurrent with this often-self-imposed mandate to be different is the intense mental stress of proving their mettle. Brand studies revealed that gen Z is used to instant gratification and that 85 percent of this digitally-savvy cohort are given to compare their lives with their peers — a trend exacerbated by social media and live streaming.
CLEAR knew that to connect with gen Z Indonesians, old ways of advertising wouldn't resonate with them, since they are not passive content consumers.
The ads — served programmatically to both Digital Turbine and Unilever audiences —integrated directly into a Digital Out-of-Home (OOH): the moment users input their data and share, their first name and answers were posted in real-time to a digital OOH near Indonesia's top concert venue, allowing for a three-way programmatic marketing.
Cleverly situated when the famous Korean girl band Black Pink, was performing, DOOH managed to attract the eyeballs of those walking past the road.
Serious about strengthening brand relevance in the lives of Indonesian youth, CLEAR launched a nationwide campaign utilizing the language of music to inspire gen Z to "clear their heads of stress" and embrace their uniqueness.
Recognizing the gen Z cohort isn't a passive consumer of content; CLEAR set out to collaborate with its target audience for the initial stage of its nationwide 360 campaign. Utilizing a clever strategy of live digital to OOH Integration, CLEAR rolled out an insight-gathering campaign on mobile, asking users about their most stressful moments. Answers are consequently shared, in real-time, on billboards near the GBK concert venue. By doing so, users become "co-creators" as their shared answers would inspire the lyrics of the "Clear Your Head" music video.
It was a 360-degree digital campaign, and 100 percent was allocated to digital media. Being the leading platform for DAD acquisition, over five percent of the digital media budget was allocated to collect the same.
Capitalizing on best-in-class mobile ad technology by Digital Turbine, the Clear Your Head mobile ad begins with a video of a gen Z influencer hyping up CLEAR Ice Cool Menthol's triple-powered effectiveness in ridding the hair of dandruff — a perennial cause of stress.
Leveraging gen Z's need for instant gratification, the mobile ad is delivered purely on rewarded inventory — rewarding users with in-game currency for their participation.
Playing on gen Z's craving for community and connection, the ad encourages users to share their stressful moments — telling them their stories would appear, in real-time, at a Digital Turbine-created microsite and on billboards near Gelora Bung Karno, a concert venue where their favorite K-pop girl band BLACKPINK would soon be playing.
Passersby seeing their answers can also share their stressful moments through a QR code/shortened link shown on the billboards. The final frame features two call-to-action buttons — a larger one to buy the product online, and a smaller call to action (CTA) to show the billboards' location.
The targeting for the rewarded inventory was throughout the archipelago, allowing gen Z who are all across the nation to also participate in the campaign, and the opportunity to have their responses appear so close to their idols. The ingenious integration with the digital OOH further amplified the reach and impressions of the mobile campaign especially in the Senayan region, where Clear wanted it to be, peaking in the three-day run of the concert.
Despite being the number one anti-dandruff shampoo in Indonesia, CLEAR had been suffering a brand power decline since 2021 (1.3 percent versus Q3 2021). For future growth, the brand knew it needed to improve on its brand power by dialing up its superiority as the best anti-dandruff. The brand wanted to communicate among its digitally-savvy gen Z audience that getting rid of dandruff would, in turn, knock out stress from their daily lives, thus boosting self-confidence.
To do this, the brand leveraged mobile ad technology and deep gaming inventory — a first for the brand. The mobile ad, leveraging Digital Turbine-powered Instant Play HD Video with Dynamic End Card, achieved an engagement rate of 6.43 percent — surpassing the two to five percent benchmark.
Click-through rate was a good 3.12 percent — well above the benchmark of one to two percent. More importantly, the collaborative campaign reached 23 million people, generating more than 1,000 answers on their consumers' most stressful moments. These were then shared in real-time on DOOH, which further boosted positive sentiment.
A whopping 79 percent of gen Z responded positively to the campaign message, agreeing that it reflected what CLEAR shampoo stands for. The invaluable insights not only powered the next stage of the campaign — i.e., the creation of the Clear Your Head musical anthem with lyrics "co-written" by its gen Z consumers — but also enabled CLEAR to create even more assets to engage with gen Z.
On TikTok, over one million people participated in the Clear Your Head duet challenge, garnering over 240 million engagements and a 7.8 percent engagement rate (three times higher than the industry benchmark).
Brand mentions on social platforms saw a jump of 55 percent compared to the previous period, with over 97 percent positive comments. Brand search volumes have seen a jump of 92 percent post the launch of the campaign.
The Clear Your Head mobile campaign not only succeeded in its data acquisition efforts, but a post-campaign brand lift study revealed it also helped push for excellent results in the brand's market standing. Post-exposure consideration for CLEAR was the highest among the brands measured at 69 percent.
Response to the campaign was overwhelmingly positive at 83 percent, maintaining a strong purchase intent for CLEAR at 71 percent. Purchasing CLEAR was also the strongest call-to-action the ad provoked.
Finally, the ad further bolstered CLEAR as the brand of choice for fighting dandruff, with the statement "Clear is a brand superior with Anti-Dandruff" being the strongest message that came through at 67 percent.
