Data driven approach to successfully launch Acne Squad, one of the five digital first brands from Premium Beauty Business Unit (PBBU) at HUL

Acne Squad is here to simplify, demystify and solve all things acne. It helps battle acne by providing targeted solutions to every stage of the acne lifecycle. The products have been created using revolutionary patented technologies and active ingredients that effectively prevent future breakouts, unclog pores, terminate active breakouts, and wipe out the aftermath of acne- dark spots and pigmentation.

The key challenge was to launch a product with predictable month on month Sale growth rather than simply generating vanilla awareness via impressions and views. With no historical customer digital footprints, it was a completely new category to solve for the brand on digital. People suffering with acne issues look for authentic information and effective solutions. Building trust and driving conversions for a digital first brand needed robust digital marketing strategies and compelling, authentic communication to be reached to the right audience. The unique value proposition of the brand had to be clearly communicated to win the fierce skincare market.

• Full Funnel Approach: From awareness to conversion, the launch was planned to open up and scale  the funnel for right target audiences identified through relevant optimisation event signals. An optimized balance was created between quantity vs. quality of data signals at each stage of the funnel to allow the campaigns delivering desired results in terms of traffic vs. conversion.
• Performance First Branding Approach: A dynamic budget distribution between Branding and Performance objective was implemented to control the output from immediate (ROAS & CAC) as well as long term (LTV) results. The same was periodically reviewed and revised quarter on quarter to improvise results over the brand journey from first to fourth quarter.
• Creative Signals for Identifying Right Audience: Creatives were strategically used not only to communicate with the right audience, but also as a signal to identify the relevant in-market audience for the campaigns driven by AI. Creative across dimensions (Stage of Acne, Offer, SKU and Category) were tested against audiences to identify the most performing ones.
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• Effective use of influencers in Performance: Right use of relevant influencers for performance helped to build brand while creating the demand in a category which is heavily driven by opinion and word of mouth.
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• Advanced Data Models: With help of Adbytzz, advanced D2C data models (SKU, Category, Offer mapping against ad-platform, funnel and audience) were established for robust monitoring, optimisation and scaling.
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• First Party Data Activation: Efficiently implement and utilize first party data to enable ad personalisation, optimization and monitoring.

For a category such as acne which is heavily driven by informational than transactional search queries, being on top of the category searches was crucial to create brand presence amongst relevant audiences who eventually turned to the brand Acne Squad for seeking the right solution. ETML built an elaborative search structure categorizing intent of people seeking information Vs. people seeking a product solution to divert traffic to relevant pages to serve people with relevant content and product at each stage of their acne journey.

On the other hand, content hooks built over Acne Squad website, such as “Acne-Care Quiz” and “Acne Knowledge”, helped to build the engagement in relevant audiences eventually turning into loyalists.

With its holistic growth approach, perfectly balanced between branding and performance, ETML was able to deliver:

• 17X increase in brand search volume
• 2+ monthly ROAS on paid channels 
• 16X increase in revenue from Q1 to Q4

Contact us if you are a similar business looking for a custom attribution and optimization solution to scale your omni-channel business.