HENRIK'S HAIR RAISING MESSAGE

TitleHENRIK'S HAIR RAISING MESSAGE
BrandPROCTER & GAMBLE
Product/ServiceHEAD & SHOULDERS SHAMPOO
Category B09. Celebrity Endorsement
Entrant JUNG RELATIONS Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation JUNG RELATIONS Stockholm, SWEDEN
Media Placement MEDIACOM Stockholm, SWEDEN
PR JUNG RELATIONS Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production HARD HAT Stockholm, SWEDEN
Additional Company PERFECT DAY Stockholm, SWEDEN
Credits
Name Company Position
Ebba Hultengren Jung Relations Head of Creative
Max Hafelt Jung Relations PR Advisor
Ellen Westöö Jung Relations Project Manager

The Campaign

We launched a humorous and personal campaign that mimicked classic crisis communications enabling Henrik to “come clean” in an array of ways. 1. Press conference We kicked off with a film in which Henrik initially gave the impression that he was to announce something serious, like his hockey retirement, but quickly moved on to elaborate on why H&S truly is his shampoo of choice. 2. Podcast Together with two of Sweden’s top podcasters we launched the podcast “In the dressing room with Henrik Lundqvist”. In three episodes the trio discussed everything between heaven and shower, and of course – if Henrik uses H&S. 3. Guest Appearance To round things off we got Henrik to do a guest appearance on Sweden’s most popular TVC-series – giving him the chance to prove that things were back to normal and that he continues to be a proud dandruff shampoo ambassador.

Execution

September: The press conference film was given exclusively to one of Sweden's largest newspapers online: Sportbladet. Once the film was live we seeded the film to several other publications and media. October: We teased about the podcast to broad media gaining interest and engagement ahead of launch. Each podcast episode had it's own media angle and we seeded the episodes together with additional content (comments from Henrik, in-depth information etc) towards different media segments. November: We contacted media ahead of Henrik's guest appearance in another brand's TVC which helped build the story that Henrik was once again focused on being the H&S ambassador. September-November: Exclusive Interviews, a media collaboration on expressen.se and meet-and-greet competitions were launched to keep the conversation buzzing during the fall/winter.

*Earned reach of 37 million (Sweden pop. 9 million) 30,000 to 50,000 downloads/ podcast episode resulted in a #1 spot in iTunes during the campaign. *The press conference film was so popular that it eventually aired as TVC which increased the brand recall from 26 % to 50 %. *In the media collaboration the press conference film had 12 clicks/minute in the first 24h. *H&S sales went up 8 %, defending the position as the most sold shampoo in Sweden. *The coach of Henrik’s rival team commented on Henrik’s film in a press conference and a rival hockey goalie admitted to also using H&S – “like the King Henke”.

The Situation

The campaign is humorous, yet built and executed the same way as classic PR crisis communications. With an understanding of how media reacts to news about Henrik Lundqvist we made this campaign as newsworthy and honest as possible. Henrik was in truth commenting on his H&S ambassadorship. The campaign is built on ongoing online conversations making our campaign easily fit into traditional media publications and social media. Each piece of content was made to tailor to specific media segments and was launched though PR-seeding, to later receive bought media support.

The Strategy

The target audience was males aged 18-35 who use dandruff shampoo, but not on a daily basis. The target media was sports, lifestyle and news media in Sweden. The campaign is built on ongoing online conversations making our campaign easily fit into traditional media publications and social media. Each piece of content was made to tailor to specific media segments and was launched though PR-seeding, to later receive bought media support. Our approach was always to deliver truthful communication (no tricks) but in a heartfelt and humorous way.