H&S gets personality online with Friendster

The FMCG giant worked with Starcom MediaVest Malaysia and Pixel Media, Friendster.com's exclusive online ad sales partner in Malaysia, to roll out its biggest interactive push in the market. "P&G is very good at TV, but we wanted to look at how other mediums could help complement it and be in the forefront of innovation," said Ivy Sam, P&G country media manager for Malaysia. "We've not measured success (of online campaigns) in the past, but will get learnings to use online on an even bigger scale in the future... One of the key reasons holding us back from using online has been what measures to track." The site, which allows web users to locate and chat with friends worldwide, can be leveraged for interactive word-of-mouth marketing. Users of the service develop a network of friends and share information with their network. "This is a campaign that takes P&G beyond the banner and taps on the online community platform," said Kevin Huang, Pixel CEO. "It has allowed P&G to take the viral effect inherent in the Friendster platform to enable users to become fans of the product and to personally recommend the product to their friends." The online push gave the product a personality, which Friendster users could relate to, including likes, dislikes, occupation ('Removes 99.9 per cent of dandruff flakes with regular use') and hobbies ('fighting the five signs of dandruff to give you the confidence of flake-free, soft, smooth and itch-free hair'). Testimonials and personal endorsements recommending H&S ran alongside the profile, while an ad on the homepage was geared to driving traffic to the H&S profile page. The campaign also featured a 'Shout out' function, announcing a product promotion in Malay-sia and ran as part of a wider integrated campaign spanning TV, radio and in-store, as well as an online game to encourage trial of a new H&S product variant, Scalp Nourishing launched with the 'Freedom from itch' positioning. Huang said Friendster has 800,000 monthly unique visitors in Malaysia, 49 per cent of which are male, with 85 per cent of all users aged between 16 to 24. He noted that more than 233 users 'endorsed' the product by becoming a fan of Head & Shoulders, with 13 testimonials registered at press time.