I am back after a few stressful weeks. Usually, it is hard to come up with new ideas after taking a little break. But sometimes, a thing comes around and slams you in the face, and you just have to talk about it. And this just happened. A few days ago, I stumbled upon a recent example of truly world-class marketing.
I already like Dr. Squatch's ads. I liked the theme so much that they convinced me to buy from them. But one of their newest ads was too good not to talk about it. So here I am.
They uploaded an ad on their YouTube channel with Sydney Sweeney starring as a character. In four weeks, it has gotten 11 million views and over 2k comments praising how great the ad is.
But what makes it so great?
Let’s start with the obvious: featuring Sydney Sweeney is an outstandingly smart decision. Over the last few months, there has been a hype around Sydney Sweeney. You just need to check her comments on Instagram and you’ll see what I mean. Shortly said: Every man finds her unbelievably attractive. Which makes Sydney Sweeney’s target audience on social media primarily men. And what is Dr.Squatch? A natural soap for men. So, what if we combine the very attractive and unbelievably hyped star with a primarily male audience and a company that produces natural body wash for only men? A match made in heaven. This move alone guaranteed that it would go viral.
Additionally, the ad is very funny. As I stated before, Dr. Squatch uses humor in every ad. They do the same here. But they also fully use the meme around Sydney Sweeney. The ad has a couple of ambiguous jokes. They use things that would typically be said in a sexual context and link them to their soap. It is pretty simple but very effective. While using all that humor, they still communicate their message that natural soap is manly and attractive.
At this point, you can imagine why it went viral (if you are even still here and not already watching it). But clicks are not buys. At the end of the day, Dr. Squatch does not care about clicks; they want to sell soap. But it also works for that.
But why?
The answer is the Halo effect. The Halo Effect is a psychological effect. When a celebrity endorses a product, the positive attributes associated with that celebrity are transfered to the brand or product. Let's break it down: Sydney Sweeney is desirable for many men. If she plays a part in this ad, the product will also become more desirable for men. It sounds ridiculous, but it works. For example, Nike's partnership with Ronaldo works similarly for aspiring football players. Celebrities guide us as thought leaders, providing incentives for our buying decisions. No matter if it is trust in the product or just making the product more aspiring.
Honestly, I could go on and on about this ad. But let's look at what we can learn from it for our ads and how we might even do better than Dr. Squatch.
The takeaway is simple: Use the Halo effect for your brand. But yeah, yeah, I can already hear you saying that you can’t afford Sydney Sweeney or Lebron James (never thought you would hear those two in the same sentence, did you?). It is essential that the celebrities that you choose appeal to your audience. That means a very niche product also works with a very niche celebrity. Another way of doing this is well-known and straightforward: Influencer Marketing. Influencer Marketing also uses the Halo Effect. Every time you connect a prominent figure to your brand, it can boost your sales. Nevertheless, it would be best if you did not cooperate with every hyped person, as a sudden fall in their reputation can also negatively affect your brand. So use this effect, but be careful.
Now, let's see how Dr. Squatch could have done even better:
They released three different ads with Sydney Sweeney. While one reached 11 million, the other two combined reached around a million organic views. Don’t get me wrong, that is still absolutely massive, but a steep drop-off from the first ad. So how could they have fixed that?
The problem is that those are three different ads. The only thing in common is the character that Sydney Sweeney is playing. But each ad has a premise, an act, and an end. Those are closed stories inside these ads. More people would have returned to watch the other ones if there had been an overlapping story arc over all three ads. And more people voluntarily watching more of your ads will likely help with conversion. I know that writing the ad to each be an excellent ad while building up an overlapping story is not easy. But we are talking about creating the world's best ads, right? Deadpool and Wolverine showed that it is possible.
Nevertheless, this campaign was a huge success for Dr. Squatch, and I love seeing creativity being rewarded.
That does it for this week. I am now off to buy some natural soap and explain to my girlfriend why I know what is going on in Sydney Sweeney's comments. Wish me luck.
See you next week!
