Glowing with confidence: essano Happy Skin cracks the OOH code in 24 hours

The Client

In 2023, essano launched essano HAPPY SKIN to cater to an emerging group of consumers who were increasingly concerned about their skin microbiome, and who wanted effective skincare solutions for a healthier, happier complexion and planet. Like all essano brands, it’s committed to cruelty-free, sustainable practices and natural ingredients. Available online and in major retail outlets like Chemist Warehouse, New World, Coles and Woolworths, it’s been attracting users all over New Zealand and Australia since its launch with its bold packaging popping off the shelves.

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The Challenge

In early 2024, essano HAPPY SKIN got the opportunity to run out of home (OOH) media in Australia and New Zealand and the pressure was on to land on the right tagline, key message and tone of voice to represent the brand.

The brief to its agency was to drive essano HAPPY SKIN brand awareness and ultimately conversion in Australia and New Zealand by focusing on a core consumer message that was impactful, punchy, simple and able to cut through to consumers.

Being outdoor media, this wasn’t a small investment or one they could optimise later. So when their agency came back with ideas, pre-testing was even more crucial than usual. 

Despite the enthusiasm to pre-test and the stakes, speed was still essential so the team was thrilled when Stickybeak could turn the test around in 24 hours! 

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The Approach

To maximise the OOH investment, essano and Stickybeak set off to test a shortlist of taglines, key messages and language variants. The options were judged on what would motivate consumers to find out more, and convey trust and reliability. 

For audience selection, the focus was Australian women with three age brackets so the team could spot any nuances in the findings later. 

The quick nature of Stickybeak’s head-to-head comparative test made it the methodology of choice as it replicates the real life experience of making quick, instinctive decisions.

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The Result

Clear winners aren’t always the objective of these tests but in essano HAPPY SKIN’s case, the preferred options were clear, actionable and the qualitative feedback was consistent with essano HAPPY SKIN’s desired brand associations. In this test, respondents overwhelmingly commented on the use of language about “glowing skin” making them want to find out more, a useful insight beyond the billboard and OOH creative the team could use again. 

With this validation, the team could make a confident decision about what would help maximise the outdoor media investment - what’s more they also brought it to life over different media formats extending the testing investment even further.

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