Client: Mary Kay
Situation: Each year big brands go head-to-head to compete for the most creative TV spot during the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the premier television event of the year in the United States, and every year big brands go head to head for the most remembered ads for months to come. This year alone, nearly 109 million people nationwide tuned in to watch the Ravens take on the 49ers; it was the third-most watched program on television.. As a result, it’s one of the most useful methods to reach a massive audience with just one spot. We had to decide if the Super Bowl was a smart medium for Mary Kay or if we could allocate our budget differently for a more effective outcome.
My role: creative development
Solution: Despite its impressive ability to reach more than a third of the country in one night, the Super Bowl isn’t for everyone. It has a reputation for catering to men— sexual depictions of women, lewd humor and cars being just a few of the types of ads shown—and ignoring the women in the house, as well as depicting a number of sexist/stereotypical ads.. The Mary Kay brand stands for something more, and it projects quality and positivity. The brand should not be seen alongside ads such as these.
Despite it's broad reach, we decided that Mary Kay should not use the Super Bowl to advertise to Gen Y females. There is no guarantee that the target would see the ads that are aired for only 30 seconds. The Super Bowl's reputation for sexist/stereotypical ads may bring May Kay under negative light and potentially harm the brand. We believe that there is better opportunity for Mary Kay through non-traditional media and IMC efforts. We took inspiration from women's desire for a natural look and created the Natural Beaty concept that highlights Mary Kay's current Botanical Effects skin care product line. This concept helps women to focus more on natural beauty and what comes from beneath the surface rather than the stereotypical perception of what beauty really is. Through this, we created a campaign parallel with Mary Kay's core values that focus on the Golden Rule and giving back to the community. Guerilla installations that will generate social and earned media will be placed in major cities in urban areas. Contests will be hosted through Instagram and Youtube beauty endorsers will engage our target audience. IMC efforts will be used to encourage the younger generation to consider becoming an independent beauty consultant. A more complex, targeted and emotionally charged campaign will allow Mary Kay to accomplish so much more over a longer time frame and to connect, on a much deeper level, with the target audience.
As a member of the group, I helped to develop the initial ideas for the guerilla portion of the campaign as well as the IMC efforts. I felt that the originality of the guerilla portion would gain our targets attention as well as draw others to get involved with the campaign. The IMC efforts needed to be relevant and intriguing to allow our target to gain interest in becoming a Mary Kay beauty consultant. I filmed, painted and directed our commercial spot that promoted our guerilla efforts and communicated the message of our campaign.
