Clairol: Tracey Norman

Credits & Description:

Title: Real Color Stories: Tracey Norman
Agency: Grey New York
Brand: Clairol
Country: USA
Entrant Company: Grey New York
Advertising Agency: Grey New York
Media Agency: Zenith, New York
Pr Agency: Marina Maher Communications, New York
Production Company: Townhouse, New York
Chief Creative Officer: Andreas Dahlqvist (Grey New York)
Senior Integrated Producer: Jen Pugliese (Townhouse)
Senior Strategist: Maria Vorovich (Grey New York)
Executive Integrated Producer: Tania Salter (Townhouse)
Integrated Producer: Emily Darby (Townhouse)
Chairman, Global Creative Council: Per Pedersen (Grey New York)
Group Creative Director: Beth Avellini (Grey New York)
Group Creative Director: Gina Gianneschi (Grey New York)
Planning Director: Amanda Peters (Grey New York)
Planner: Libby Wymer (Grey New York)
Evp, Global Account Director: Zahida Subramanian (Grey New York)
Vp, Account Director: Kate Bernhardt (Grey New York)
Account Supervisor: Bryan Burns (Grey New York)
Senior Account Executive: Derek Monson (Grey New York)
Group Senior Vice President: Jen Kaczmarek (Mmc)
Senior Account Supervisor: Danielle Hawkes (Mmc)
Svp, Group Director: Jennifer Mcclarran (Zenith)
Vp, Marketing Director: Heather Carruthers (Procter & Gamble)
Global Brand Manager: Borna Bayat (Procter & Gamble)
North America Brand Manager: Anna Lyn (Procter & Gamble)
Global Senior Influencer Marketing Manager: Katya Magnitskaya (Procter & Gamble)
Execution:
We brought Tracey back to tell her remarkable story and re-define the standard of beauty in our category. We first announced Tracey as our ambassador in an exclusive follow-up story with The Cut focusing on her return to modeling, this time as her true self. In it, Tracey said:“I was being accepted for who I am and [Clairol] wanted me as the person that I am today to represent them.”The following day, a print ad in Harper’s Bazaar teased the new campaign featuring Tracey as the new face of Nice’n Easy.With the full launch of the new campaign months away, we kept the momentum going, telling her story through a long-form digital video. This was an opportunity for Clairol to drive the emotional connection and relevance we were seeking, and a departure from our traditional product-focused advertising. Paid social support maximized our reach on Facebook and YouTube.
Synopsis:
The brand that invented at-home hair color was aging fast. Once a brand that drove conversations in culture – with iconic campaigns like “Does She, or Doesn’t She?” – Clairol was now seen as out-of-touch, becoming invisible/irrelevant.To save Clairol’s future, we needed to get consumers to see us in a new light, re-establishing Nice’n Easy as a modern trail-blazing brand.Today’s beauty norms have expanded. Beauty is no longer one narrow standard, it’s about what makes each individual beautiful - going beyond the physical ideals, to an emotional inner reflection. Surprisingly, the beauty category had not yet adopted this modern interpretation of beauty. There was an opportunity for Clairol to stand out in this category that was ripe for disruption, turning convention on its head and representing a more diverse definition of “beautiful”. Our objectives were clear: drive modernity and relevancy and establish a more inclusive definition of beauty.
Outcome:
We touched a genuine emotional chord, putting Nice’n Easy back in the spotlight. This very “real” story resonated with people globally, and sparked a cultural conversation – one which moved beyond beauty with international pick-up in Lifestyle (Harpers Bazaar, People, New York Magazine) Industry Trade (Adweek, AdAge and Campaign) and news outlets (BBC, The Guardian and Huffington Post). Additionally, celebrities such as Laverne Cox, Perez Hilton and Jada Yuan shared the story helping us reach and inspire women we weren’t previously talking to!Tracey’s story garnered amazing results, driving modernity and relevancy and getting women to see the brand in a new light:•High audience retention with 69% completion rates of video on YouTube•91% positive sentiment across social channels •311,11
258 earned impressions •Over 4.6 Million Video Views on YouTube & Facebook •17.6 Thousand social shares•80% increase in channel subscribers YOY on YouTube •Post campaign sales were up 34%
Relevancy:
Clairol was fast becoming a dated brand in a category where old-fashioned could be a death sentence. To save the brand’s future, we leaned into an unexpected story from our past. Tracey Norman was one of our models 35 years ago and she had a surprising personal story we knew would bring attention, interest and relevance back to the brand. While an aging, black, transgender model was the antithesis of the old standard of beauty – for Clairol, she was the perfect example of what it means to be beautiful today.So, we brought Tracey back to tell her story.
Strategy:
Yes, Clairol wanted to sell more hair color, but we had to attract a new diverse group of women and establish a meaningful connection with consumers.We discovered that hair color is more than a beauty statement; it’s a statement of identity. For women, changing their hair color is the biggest physical transformation they can make without undergoing plastic surgery. Women feel their hair color signals to the world who they are; and how deeply they feel the hair color they were ‘given’ does not represent who they truly are. Based on that insight, we championed self-defined beauty, by helping the world see the authentic “you”.Clairol’s new campaign “Color As Real As You Are” brought our strategy to life. We brought Tracey back to be the face of Clairol (again) in a way that was completely authentic and exemplified diversity and the new standard of beauty at its best.
Campaign Description:
Nice’n Easy’s “Color as real as you are” campaign celebrates modern definitions of beauty by demonstrating how hair color let’s your inner self shine though.For Tracey Norman, the first black transgender model, hair color was so much more than hair color; it was what transformed her look and helped her become the woman she is today. Through an exclusive with The Cut, she revealed that at the peak of her career, she was the face of Clairol’s “Born Beautiful”. However, while on the set of an Essence magazine shoot, she was outed as transgender, and her modeling career came to an abrupt halt.After 35 years, Nice'n Easy invited Tracey Norman back to the brand – this time as her real self – a move that was groundbreaking for the brand and the category.