Title	VIVIENNE SABÓ CHANGES LOOKS ON GENDER STEREOTYPES IN RUSSIA
Brand	VIVIENNE SABÓ
Product/Service	Mascara Cabaret Prèmiere
Category	C07. Challenger Brand
Entrant	SOCIALIST Moscow, RUSSIA
Idea Creation	SOCIALIST Moscow, RUSSIA
Media Placement	SOCIALIST Moscow, RUSSIA
PR	SOCIALIST Moscow, RUSSIA
Production	CHICKEN CURRY Moscow, RUSSIA
Post Production	CHICKEN CURRY Moscow, RUSSIA

Name	Company	Position
Olga Tsygankova	SOCIALIST	Idea creation
Ekaterina Samotesova	SOCIALIST	Idea creation
Nataliya Ashomko	SOCIALIST	Idea creation
Anastasia Glebova	SOCIALIST	Idea creation
Grigoriy Shatohin	Chiken Curry	Scriptwriter
Alexander Gudkov	Chiken Curry	Scriptwriter
Vadim Seleznev	Chiken Curry	Scriptwriter

Objectives

1. It was important to avoid the audience switch to other brands, while they had a lot of product innovations that Cabaret mascara did not have KPI: Sales growth – 9% in volume 2. Due to the lack of dramatic product changes, while competitors constantly provide those - Cabaret mascara began to experience difficulties with brand awareness. It was important not to lose to competitors in this indicator. KPI: Brand awareness growth – 5% 3. To be really noticeable and bright, we decided to make a provocative campaign that will be able to start a public discussion. We were counting on a viral effect to fuel public interest KPI: Viral effect – 30% earned media

Summary of the work

BRAND AND PRODUCT Cabaret Première mascara is an iconic product in the Vivienne Sabó portfolio, and at the same time it's a strong independent sub-brand. For several years, it has been the №1 mascara in sales (both volume and value).* The competition on the mascara market is driven by product innovation, when brands are constantly launching new brushes and formulas. Сabaret mascara has been on the market for many years without any significant product innovations and it has become difficult to stay relevant to the audience. Thus the mascara faced the 2,8% awareness decrease.** BACKGROUND Beauty industry should inspire the freedom of expression. But in Russia, in fact, it mainly supports the judgmental sociocultural stereotypes of the good and the bad. Brands’ communication only adjusts people to clear standards and gives the installation of what is "good" and what should be condemned. All communication is cliched and none of the brands has a clearly articulated social position.*** At the same time, those who want to express themselves in an original manner, often face the negative reaction of the society. Anti LGBT laws, that were adopted in Russia, only complicated the situation and turned the society against those who express themselves any way, but traditionally. The non-standard expression is unofficially tabooed in Russia, and often those who go in this area – face the repressions. IDEA We were inspired by the drag queen culture, where male artists perform in extravagant women's outfits with bright makeup. This culture is popular abroad, but in Russia only progressive media and bloggers have the courage to discuss it. Even international brands, whose freedom of expression is literally in their DNA, do not take risks in Russia. Vivienne Sabó, together with the iconic Cabaret Première mascara, had enough courage to become the first brand activist in the beauty market. We decided to change the common standards on the way of self-expression and break the status quo. REALISATION So, in collaboration with celebrities who are famous for challenging accepted norms (Alexander Gudkov, Cream Soda), Vivienne Sabó made a video manifesto about freedom of self-expression. The music video manifesto was a core of the campaign. The creative team took inspiration from brands mission and put a new twist on meet-the-parents dinner situation. In the video clip, a male dancer appears in front of his girlfriend's family in his stage persona, using Cabaret mascara for a make-up. The music video was promoted through social media and creative team accounts. The music track performed by Gudkov was placed on all the music platforms. The developed dance was also used in the popular Russian show "Dancing". *Nielsen, decorative cosmetics market in the mascara category, 2020 **RosIndex, mascaras users, 2020 ***Ipsos "Sustained development: consumers and brands in search of answers", 2019

Engagement & Awareness

1. The brave campaign, which raised an important topic for Russian society, provoked a wide audience’s response:* • The video gained 6.5 million views and lasted for 2 days in the Youtube trends. • Despite its long length, the average viewing depth was 70%, which is several times higher than the benchmarks (20-30%). 2. Viewers supported the brand's bold position and campaign became viral, which significantly increased total reach:** • 400 thousand reactions to the video (likes, comments, reposts) • 13.5 thousand posts from users mentioning the brand and the video. • This viral effect provided an additional free reach of 16 million people (71% earned media), which increased the main media effect of the campaign by 3.5 times. * Youtube, statistics, Google benchmarks for content viewing, 2020 ** YouScan, 2020

Social Behaviour & Insight

We got the flurry of positive reaction from users. The audience fiercely supported not just the brand or advertising story, but the very concept of freedom of expression. Basically, the audience supported brand with strong position and began to increase its share in their repertoire. It resulted in the sales increase even on a stagnant market.

Brand Affinity & Sentiment

The audience received the bright and provocative campaign highly positively – 82% of reactions on video was positive* (number of likes versus number of dislikes on YouTube) and we got plenty of positive and supportive comments. So the audience really noticed Vivienne Sabo brand and it became outstanding in the category. The campaign was not ignored even by the media. We got publications not only on women's or marketing platforms, but also in sociopolitical and news media where people usually do not find articles about advertising – Lenta, Rain. All this led to brand awareness growth: 7% versus 5% planned** *YouTube, Chicken Carry channel, 2021 **RosIndex, mascara users, 2020

Sales Success

Taking the courage of going against the conventional norms, Vivienne Sabó won the love of the audience, which could not but affect the business. To neutralize the impact of seasonal prevalence, we compared the effect of the current campaign with last year's: Sales increase +11.7% in volume on stagnant (September) and falling (October) market versus +9% planned* * Nielsen, decorative cosmetics market in the mascara category, 2019-2020

Conclusion

What's next? The success of this campaign proved the right strategy for Vivienne Sabó to be an activist brand that raises important social issues. Brand officially decided to make every campaign socially important and to provide positive change with them. Thus, brand had already released a new campaign «Pomadella» which promotes different product, but the same issue – to fight against the condemnation of bright images. Furthermore, the campaign has become a benchmark in the Russian advertising market. It is referred to and considered as a benchmark by brands, discussed at key advertising conferences. It turns out that the campaign has sparked the interest to brand activism in the Russian market.

Discounting Factors

During the campaign period, there were no third-party factors influencing business results. Moreover, the promo pressure is reduced to the level of non-essential in the category (discount on mascara -10% versus the usual -40%). There were no other comprehensive media campaigns or changes in distribution. * Nielsen, decorative cosmetics market in the mascara category, 2019-2020