Creating a body-positive launch campaign for St.Tropez

The Challenge

With the objective of a significant rise in visibility TikTok, St. Tropez aimed to increase sales of their new Glow Kit, alongside their varied tanning products. Campfire set out to create engaging content that would guarantee visibility and memorability of St. Tropez products, prompting purchase consideration, sales and an increased positive brand perception on TikTok and beyond.

Client Ideas

Whilst creating a trending TikTok moment and following and selling the Ashley Graham Collaboration Glow Kit, St. Tropez was equally obsessed spreading its message of body positivity, diversity, inclusion and self-love - the campaign had to go beyond just selling a product. The brand suggested the target for the campaign would be mainly a female Millennial audience, with a secondary focus on Gen Z consumers. By making sure that the messaging and style of their communication felt native to the rapidly growing TikTok world, St. Tropez could appeal to consumers on a platform that was growing rapidly in popularity. Appealing to these audiences also meant Campfire would have to scour the TikTok beauty landscape for relatable micro-creators who encompassed the values of the St. Tropez brand. We simultaneously would have to harness our deeper understanding of the TikTok algorithm.

Strategy

Using our detailed understanding of how TikTok works as a social media platform and insights into how St. Tropez audience retrieved beauty and tanning tips, information and aspirations, we set out to create an irresistible campaign that felt native to the TikTok platform…

Unlike any other social platforms, utilising a TikTok ‘Micro creator’ does not mean micro results. On the platform, content is served and discovered based on its quality rather than the number of followers the creator has, prompting the best creators (not necessarily the most followed) to go viral. Our aim was to identify, negotiate with and brief lesser known creators who could create amazing viral content for St.Tropez, establishing social proof and herd mentality on the TikTok platform. Micro-creators were sent collaborative briefs in which they were actively encouraged to show the Ashley Graham collaboration kit in content based around self-love and body positivity.

Using hashtags such as #GlowWithConfidence and #StTropezTan we were able to check to track the initial effectiveness of organic St.Tropez content. Amplifying messages with a sound paid media strategy meant that we could create a trending St Tropez moment on TikTok and gain followers that resonated with the St. Tropez message (without spending too much on influencer fees). Paid ads were serviced to our pinpointed target market, whilst also maintaining the style and format of casual, funny and interesting TikTok that we knew the target market enjoyed. Paid TikTok ads also lead to an increase in visitations to the St. Tropez TikTok page, where audiences could watch even more Glow Kit content, created by…

Using the St. Tropez brand values and audience aspirations, large influencers had to be distinctive thought-leaders who had a clear grasp of the target market - providing relatable content that immediately gained understanding from the millennial female audience. We searched for niche, original and compelling macro-creators, who would immediately grab attention as users scrolled through their TikTok feeds with unique narratives; this included creators such as @emmycombss who’s fierce and sleek bald look created an excellent display of how distinctive looks could be enhanced with the St.Tropez Glow Kit; this pushed the body positive values of the brand. Eventually using content from 28 influencers of incredible diversity and size, we were able to amplify the St. Tropez message and product across the TikTok platform with a smart paid strategy that considered millennial and Gen Z women.

By trending globally on the platform, the Glow Kit has pushed itself to the front of the beauty market, having also been highlighted on numerous retailer websites as ‘TikTok Trending’. The trending nature of the product within an authentic and educational platform like TikTok has strengthened the effectiveness of paid advertising on other social channels. Adding “TikTok Trending” to Facebook and Instagram paid advertising copy increased CTR to 4.07% (well above industry average) - as well as increasing organic searches for products by 35% compared to before the Campaign.

This obviously impacted sales positively, of not only the Ashley Graham Glow Kit, but also many other St.Tropez products. Equally, by creating content displaying a distinctive array of confident and powerful young female creators, we have moulded a TikTok brand that glows with body-confidence, diversity, inclusion and self-love and drives change in an evermore scrutinous beauty culture and industry.