Dive Brief:
- Procter & Gamble-owned skincare brand SK-II premiered "Bare Skin Chat," a YouTube series starring comedian and "The Late Late Show" host James Corden and actress Chloë Grace Moretz, according to a company news release.
- In "Bare Skin Chat," Corden appears in Moretz's bathroom to uncover her beauty secrets. Moretz was a part of SK-II's #BareSkinProject campaign and helps coach Corden on skincare. In the series, the pair tap dance, take facial bubble baths and make an ASMR video, as Corden shares Moretz's beauty secret: SK-II's Pitera Essence.
- The series focuses on demystifying skincare and features new episodes each week. It also stars Japanese comedian Naomi Watanabe and Japanese actress Kasumi Arimura.
Dive Insight:
As most beauty brands have traditionally embraced glamorous images and themes, SK-II is taking a different approach by using humor to change how people think about skin care. Humor is a valuable marketing tactic that often helps brands spark an emotional connection with consumers. Featuring Corden, known for his popular "Carpool Karaoke" TV sketches, could help SK-II drive viewership for its content series and raise brand awareness. The campaign is also primed for a global audience, with videos featuring Watanabe, nicknamed "the Japanese Beyoncé," and award-winning actress Arimura.
The "bare skin" element of the SK-II campaign also aligns with the trend of beauty brands featuring more natural, less-touched-up portrayals of beauty. Gender equality and more realistic portrayals of beauty have long been an initiative for P&G. Another P&G skincare line, Olay, has embraced themes similar to SK-II's in recent marketing. The brand debuted Face Anything last summer, aiming to inspire women to be "unapologetically" bold, confident and true to themselves. The campaign included a makeup-free challenge and influencers sharing results of their using Olay products. Olay also released a series of musical videos on YouTube, which the brand recently announced would become a live off-Broadway show premiering in April.
"Bare Skin Chat" is also an example of how brands are investing more in digital video and experimenting with different video formats to make a memorable connection with viewers and reach younger audiences, who tend to consume more content on digital than traditional channels. Digital series allow brands to highlight products in unique ways that are often more memorable than standard ad formats. Online video viewers were projected to exceed 200 million in 2018, researcher Forrester forecasts. Video ad spending was also expected to grow from $91 billion in 2018 to $103 billion by 2023, with the total share of video ad spending increasing from 21% to 34%.
