Colour Outside the Lines

Schwarzkopf LIVE Colour tasked us at Wavemaker to deliver strong growth and improve their market position. The UK hair colour market is cluttered, and awash with long-standing brands therefore we had a very ambitious target on our hands to challenge the position of one of LIVE’s competitors.

To deliver on our ambition we needed a big idea. Whilst our competitors focused on showcasing the efficacy of their results, we wanted to make the move from marketing to mattering, and so realized we needed to give LIVE consumers reasons to believe in us.

Wavemaker research revealed half of those in market considered LIVE, but there was a sizeable 20% that we were narrowly missing out on. The Missed Opportunity audience considered us but, ultimately, chose a competitor.

We also know that confidence is something many young women struggle with, and something LIVE strives to encourage. We wanted to highlight the confidence that can be brought by knowing your hair is making a statement. It was the theme of colour confidence that became the key focus.

We partnered with Cosmopolitan, a trusted young women’s magazine and together created the “Colour Outside The Lines” campaign and delivered a series of Confidence Manifestos.

Content from the Style Leaders was featured in a mix of print, digital and social to reach our Missed Opportunity audience across three touch points.

• Three DPS advertorials showcased the manifestos in print
• Leadership credentials and awareness driven through the masthead and subscriber cover wraps
• Bespoke LIVE branded subscriber envelope – an innovative first for Cosmopolitan
• Social continued the confidence conversation with videos, digital photo essays, Snapchat takeovers, Instagram-stories and animated engagement posts

The campaign was ambitious but our confidence in the campaign was strong! It was Hearst’s largest ever hair partnership, and their largest beauty campaign of 2019 – allowing us to deliver six months of conversation and our confidence message to many young women.