CHALLENGE: L’Oreal has been impacted by parallel imports into Australia, which occur when retailers sell professional brands without permission.
L’Oreal wanted to alert Australians to the issue of parallel imported products and risks from using them, while also showing support for the 3,000 Australian hair salons who rely on sales of L’Oreal salon-only hair care products.
Sefiani’s role was to educate and raise awareness among consumers (particularly women) of the risks in buying salon-only haircare products from unauthorised retail channels.
STRATEGY: Sefiani developed the #DontRiskIT creative campaign and call to action, encouraging Australians to choose trust over price in selecting hair care products. We used humour to engage with our target audience and start conversations about the issue of parallel imports.
We engaged social influencer and comedian, Tanya Hennessy, who developed video content to bring the issue to light and educate customers in a relatable and humorous way.
Sefiani also developed factual materials about parallel imports for L’Oreal’s website. Briefing materials and #DontRiskIt decals were sent to 3,000 hair salons supplied by L’Oreal.
IMPACT: Within only three weeks of going live, the video content achieved strong organic reach with more than 1.2 million Facebook views. The campaign has been labelled by L’Oreal as best practice worldwide in addressing this global ‘grey market’ issue.
Hair salons across the country are now displaying #DontRiskIt decals and collateral in their salons to prompt conversations with clients and anecdotal feedback from salon owners impacted by parallel imports has been overwhelmingly positive.