How social and OOH are helping Go-To stand out
- 02 November, 2022 07:14
In a market as crowded as skincare, it can be hard for a brand to stand out. But for Zoë Foster Blake's Go-To Skincare, cut-through is coming through a combination of a clever creative campaign, a close partnership with the retailer Mecca, and a successful foray into the fast-moving world of TikTok.
The strategy is being overseen by Go-To chief marketing officer, Leonie Faddy, who joined the company five years ago in the latest step in a career covering many aspects of the beauty industry.
When Faddy joined Go-To Skincare, it was a direct-to-consumer brand, with her role being to elevate the brand and oversee its evolution to become truly omnichannel. The key moment for this strategy was Go-To's launch into Mecca in 2019, which opened the brand to consumers who were familiar with Zoë and the brand but had not yet tried it.
"About 50 per cent of Australian buyers till prefer to buy their skincare in store, and so we were able to drive that traffic into Mecca," Faddy says.
The Covid-19 new-normal represented another turning point for Go-To's growth strategy, and the realisation that despite its success, it was still relatively unknown outside of its customer base.
"Our brand awareness was sitting at what I thought was the lower end of the industry, at 23 to 25 per cent," Faddy says. "We had so many people that hadn't heard of Go-To, and that presented a massive opportunity gain new customers and spread the word."
This led to the creation of an above-the-line campaign developed by Sayers Group, based around quirky but relatable moments of customers using Go-To products.
"The beauty market is pretty cluttered, and it is hard to get cut-through and stand out," Faddy says. "One of the key points in the brief was we didn’t want to be the average campaign, and it certainly didn’t feel right to us to be that traditional beauty advertising.
"We really wanted to show no matter who you are in Australia, no matter what you do and what you enjoy, we have skincare for you, that can make you feel great about your skin, and give you a bit of fun and joy at the same time.
"We had some billboards around the eastern seaboard that said, 'your face stops at your boobs'. It was a little bit of fun, but also educating the customer to take skincare down the neck to the decolletage."
Credit: Go-To Skincare Critical within this strategy has been the knowledge Go-To is a brand resonating strongly with people who are new to skincare.
"There are a lot of people who look to Go-To and to Zoë to learn about skincare and what they should be doing," Faddy says. "We over-index in customers who have either never used skincare or are the 'soap and water' customer."
Three TVCs were created along with supporting content, with the campaign run across digital channels, out-of-home locations and BVOD. One key outcome of the campaign has been its effectiveness in driving sales into Mecca locations, with Faddy noting a strong uplift for stores with OOH located nearby.
"Without a doubt, those Mecca store sales and interest and share-of-voice within the store increase dramatically," Faddy says. "As a result, we are doing quite a large sampling campaign with our new SPF product in the market, and we have made sure those sampling locations align with a Mecca store."
Social marketing surprise
Even more surprising, however, has been the strong response Go-To received from its foray into TikTok.
"TikTok absolutely blew the lights out in terms of every metric, and that is helping to inform our go-forward strategy with how we play in those social channels," Faddy says. "It has been an incredibly successful partnership and probably one of the most successful partnerships I have worked on in my whole time in the beauty industry."
While conversion insights received from Meta are better, the clickrate and share rate on TikTok has been incredibly high.
"We have incredible engagement on TikTok for such a low cost," Faddy says. "TikTok still seems to be a frontier that hasn’t quite been cracked by the mainstream. So it does present a good opportunity for Go-To and small to midsized brands like ours to really have a go."
TikTok will remain a key element of Go-To's strategy, which will continue to evolve as Faddy pursues her goal of lifting brand awareness.
"Once you start a brand awareness campaign, it is not just 'one campaign, and we are done'," Faddy says. "We have a big goal within our company to be a household name in Australia, and so that strategy will play through indefinitely."
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