When Tara Loftis, a lifetime beauty marketer, was two weeks into her role as global president, dermatological skincare (Cetaphil, Differin, Alastin, Benzac) at Galderma, she got an alert that the teams for the Super Bowl had been announced.
“It’s wired in me to be like, OK, it’s go time. So we have to brainstorm,” said Loftis during a fireside chat at Brand Innovators Marketing Leadership Summit during SXSW London, who had joined the company to reinvigorate the Cetaphil brand.
The brainstorm with the Lippe Taylor team – 10 days before game day – gave Loftis chills. The agency showed a deck with the insight that Taylor Swift was bringing daughters into the family living rooms to watch the game with their Dads, hoping to get a glimpse at the pop icon. At the same time, Lil Wayne was in the news saying he was hurt that he wasn’t asked to perform the halftime show during the Super Bowl, which was hosted in his hometown of New Orleans. He had been criticized in the press for being too sensitive.
The pitch: bring Lil Wayne into an ad that would talk about how its ok to be vulnerable and Cetaphil could offer soothing. Make it relatable to the teenage girls watching at home with their Dads. They called up Lil Wayne’s team and asked him if he’d star in their Super Bowl ad. With less than a week to go, he had to sign the same day and production had to begin.
“It was really heartfelt and it was truly emotional,” said Loftis. “And so while other brands were creating a piece of content with a celebrity. For us, the celebrity was a cultural insight that was happening. And we were able to create an insight that made people feel something.”
“We couldn’t overthink it,” said Loftis. “We couldn’t do 25 rounds of edits. We had to just go with our gut. We had to do it right.”
The collaboration turned into “We’re All a Lil Sensitive,” a spot that showed Lil Wayne putting on some Cetaphil during a stressful moment and helping a teenage girl out in her stressful moment when her Dad meets her date. Lil Wayne even got to promote his new album drop at the end of the spot.
The effort ran in local markets and online. It generated $54 in earned media paid and generated billions of impressions, giving Cetaphil the most earned media of any brand without a national spot.
“We just wanted to be part of the conversation,” said Loftis. “But we hit it out of the park…You can’t move at the speed of culture when you’re shooting a campaign several months out.”
