Before-and-after makeover ads are nothing new. But add in TikTok, with its ability to jump cut from bedhead to shiny blowout over an original DJ beat, and it’s not a shocker that hair care brand Olaplex pulled off three billion hits on the platform in just three days.
Olaplex, which launched in 2014 making premium hair care products, was content with growing its biz purely by word of mouth among stylists online.
But when it started investing in paid media on TikTok earlier this year, the brand turned to TikTok primarily for brand building rather than sales lift, said Charlotte Watson, who was hired in January as its first CMO.
This summer, the brand launched its biggest paid social media campaign, the hashtag challenge #OLAFLEX, in late August, which encourages fans to “flex” before-and-after clips of their hair using their favorite product.
Olaplex started marketing on TikTok in April 2020 with organic content made by influencers. During the early days of the pandemic, it made sense to shift focus on a platform with a strong reputation for engagement.
But when content tagged #OLAPLEX hit 24 million views on TikTok just shortly after launching, the brand saw potential to put real money into the platform. August is when it made its first major marketing investment on TikTok, Watson said.
There is a conversion component to this campaign – the company will still be tracking sales, Watson said – but the focus is drawing in new users to the brand.
#OLAFLEX is now up to six billion hits. (For reference, the general #OLAPLEX tag is at one billion.)
And the campaign is exclusive to TikTok.
“Every social platform has its own [brand] relevancy and its own place in our media management strategy,” Watson said, noting that the brand tried its hand at Twitter and Facebook first, followed by YouTube.
Olaplex has run performance marketing campaigns on other social media platforms, too, she said, but on TikTok it’s only done brand building so far.
Where TikTok stands out is its “velocity” in drawing in new audiences – especially Gen Z, Watson said.
Under the influence
Since Olaplex started out as a brand recommended by stylists, it made sense to advertise on another influencer-driven platform.
The #OLAFLEX campaign includes content created by 400 influencers and stylists, some of whom were paid. And Olaplex is continuing to work with these influencers throughout the fall to keep viewers engaged in the hashtag.
Continued momentum for this campaign depends on “sustained support” from creators and influencers, Watson said.
Otherwise, she added, it’ll just be a “one-hit wonder.”
And Olaplex goes beyond just paid media. A community engagement team responds to direct messages [on social media] in real time.
“Our marketing strategy is rooted in a social community between customers and stylists,” Watson said.
Is this an ad?
Even though TikTok is a sign Olaplex is getting serious about paid media, the brand doesn’t consider a paid strategy a pivot because it’s still centered around one-to-one relationships with creators and stylists.
Olaplex decided paid media was the best way to amplify its existing organic presence and reach, Watson said.
The company is testing out programmatic buying on digital display and search to keep diversifying its revenue, Watson said. But as a priority, based on how quickly the brand is able to draw in new viewers, TikTok “feels like the right place to be.”
Olaplex is measuring its TikTok brand-building campaign with a brand lift study. Engagement is determined based on unique views, click-through rates and follower growth, along with the individual engagement levels of each of the 400 participating influencers’ own content.
Based on the results of the hashtag challenge, Olaplex will plan another TikTok-only campaign focused on driving conversions. Specifically, it plans to retarget unique viewers of the #OLAFLEX campaign with ads in-platform for relevant products, moving from brand building to driving product sales.
