A Lot More People Are About to See That Pantene Ad Everybody Is Going Crazy Over

This rollout strategy was very different from Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches" campaign

  • Share
  • Read Later
Pantene Philippines

While most advertisers launch large scale, online, global marketing campaigns for videos to make them viral, the folks at Procter & Gamble are doing just the opposite.

Last month, Pantene’s Philippines branch released a video that powerfully broke down sexist double standards women often face in the workplace. Although P&G told Ad Age that it was posted to the regional Pantene’s YouTube page on Nov. 9 and ran on television twice, there was no large scale roll out plan. Then on Dec. 7, Sheryl Sandberg exalted the commercial on her Facebook page. Ten days later, the video has been seen more than 8 million times on YouTube.

And thus, P&G is now rolling out an international media campaign.

According to Ad Age, Americans can expect to see the video promoted on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube as well as appear in searches and on Pantene’s main site. A spokesperson even included a new hashtag for the ad, #ShineStrong, in an email to Ad Age. The old hashtag was #WhipIt, indicating another change in sharing strategy for the “Be Strong & Shine” campaign.

This is very different from how Dove rolled out its “Real Beauty Sketches” video, a work that was meant to go megaviral (and passed all expectations), but had a very strong strategy from day one. Sometimes a hit takes you by surprise.

It should be noted that while BBDO Gerrero, Manila made the spot, Pantene’s agency of record in the U.S. (and many other international locations) is Grey Worldwide, which will now see creative from another team appear on its turf.

Watch the ad again below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOjNcZvwjxI