#MarketingExcellenceAwards SG 2021 highlights: BioHealth Plus puts a funny spin to hair loss

BioHealth Plus International noticed an issue with hair loss among the Asia Pacific community that has been further escalated since the pandemic hit. While the brand attributes most hair loss to the increased aging population and rising stress in the young population, it also had primary concerns about the pollution surrounding China and India. According to BioHealth Plus International, such hair loss issues will require more than scalp treatments or a better shampoo and as such it needed to reach the right audience. The company decided to work with digital and social media agency, Hashmeta to release the "Take Control Of Your Hair" campaign.  

The campaign that aimed to combat the issues around hair loss managed to impress the judges and was shortlisted as a finalist for Excellence in Social Media Marketing at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's Marketing Excellence Awards 2021. 

Challenges

Aware of the challenges, BioHealth Plus brought its Trichoderm product to the Singapore market in 2018 with its topical shampoo and serum range to target individuals with hair loss issues. The key marketing strategy was to leverage on the reach of the live sellers and celebrity influencers on social media platforms such as Facebook via the use of engaging video posts. In 2020, Trichoderm decided to launch a new product range, an anti hair loss oral supplement for ladies. 

According to the brand, the marketing for an oral supplement has always been a challenge, as it isn't a product that can be easily described. Not only did the brand need to create awareness for the new product, but it also needed to communicate to the audience the relevant problems as well as the product benefit and solutions when it came to consuming its oral supplement. 

Strategy 

With consumers increasingly turning to social media as a form of entertainment, BioHealth Plus International decided to use video as a content format to entertain, educate and entice the audience to purchase. The social media channels used were Facebook and YouTube.  In order to generate curiosity and gain awareness for the product, one of the core strategy was to leverage on popular media publisher’s reach to broadcast to its target audience of females ages 25 to 45 years old.

Banking on emotion-based selling, the brand and Hashmeta decided to humour and hope to reach its audiences. The video aimed to target Singaporean females aged 25-45. The video also used fortune telling as a storyline with the angle that having hair loss would impact ones confidence and fortune.

One of the key strategies was to place the video across popular media channels that were relevant to Singaporeans. To ensure its target audience was able to relate to the product, the brand decided to use casts from YouTube content creators, Wahbanana SG. At the same time, the brand chose to place its video on SureBoh SG Facebook page to tap on a wider audience reach. SureBoh SG Facebook page has a viewership of more than one million views per month, whom which were most Singaporeans, said the brand. 

Execution 

https://www.facebook.com/TrichodermWomenSG/videos/349484636568012

For the four-minute video with Wahbanana SG, the brand and the agency decided to come up with the concept of a rich female, who tries to see a fortune teller, for better luck and fortune. The female protagonist in the video ended up visiting a medical professor who is a strong believer in Feng Shui. She unexpectedly walks into medical professor, Master Hairy's room thinking that she was visiting a Feng Shui master. Through a conversation with Master Hairy, he solves her hair loss issue. 

The video was placed on Hashmeta and SureBoh SG's Facebook page for a wider audience reach. Additionally, a 30-second video for YouTube's unskippable ads was also released, ensuring that the campaign had maximum reach. 

Results 

Through a comedy video campaign, the brand was able to highlight the problem of its target audience and provide the benefit and solution of the product. In fact, the brand believes there are currently no brands in the market currently that uses this creative strategic approach and therefore, it is definitely one of its proudest piece of work that it has produced since 2018, it said.