Celebrating the perfectly imperfect: BRÖÖ Hair Care Case Study
One day in November, we received a call from a husband and wife team in Asheville, NC – the feisty inventors of BRÖÖ: a collection of natural hair and body grooming products, all made from craft beer. Still a tiny brand, BRÖÖ had just been given the amazing chance to be distributed for a trial period in Walmart and CVS. Naturally, they were nervous about doing it “right.”
Brad and Sarah needed a partner to help them clarify their brand identity, create a campaign to introduce BRÖÖ to the world, and impress these established retailers. We jumped at the chance! In this often predictable, cookie-cutter space of beauty, these folks were not typical. Success to date came from a combination of hard work and a great product. They were entrepreneurial, hard-driving, out-of-the-box thinkers.
The perfect fit for Fancy.
We won the pitch and immediately proposed a client/agency mission: we weren’t going to adhere to the classic beauty category actions and expectations. Never.
We asked ourselves and our client: What if we stood for the complete opposite of the perfectly groomed & glossy, mane? What if we celebrated the self-expression, individuality and perfect imperfection that comes from the kind of hair you have when you’ve danced all day, let your curls curl, and your kinks kink? What if we elevated the concept of beauty to a place that was positive for women—made beauty a thing that was more than “perfect-hair deep”?
We assured BRÖÖ their future success was dependent on disrupting the beauty sea of sameness. And that by elevating what mattered to the free-spirited, fun-loving, and ultra-interesting millennial audience they’d create an emotional connection based on true understanding and a shared point of view on the world.
Celebrating perfect imperfection in hair care
When Brad and Sarah, founders of BRÖÖ, reached out to us to establish their brand as the legit beauty brand, full of natural ingredients (did we mention the craft beer?!) that really work and don’t require a team of artists and retouchers, we jumped at the chance.
What made BRÖÖ special wasn’t fairy dust or angel tears, for Pete’s sake—it was BEER! We needed to shake things up and have some fun.
From the first meeting, it was clear we were on the same page. BRÖÖ knew their audience wasn’t spending hours in front of the mirror, and they had easy, effortlessly excellent hair that was an extension of who they were as people. And as people, they were simply doing their own things. On their own terms. Creatively coming up with new ways to see old challenges. Rejecting rampant consumerism in favor of supporting artisans and makers. Living their lives in ways that made a difference.
Because we’ve worked a lot in the hair care world, we know what it takes to create the perfection so many brands demand. And we also know how refreshing it is in the category to put all that perfection aside and get to what’s real. To see a strand blow across a brow, to enjoy a curl’s twirl and bounce. So together, Fancy and BRÖÖ set out to zig where the rest of beauty was zagging.
Embracing quirky, curious, I-never-would-have-thought-of-that genius.
And girl, this was fun. We created a digital campaign called the BRÖÖMASTERS. It was a virtual “cheers” to people who lived life exactly the way they wanted to – full of quirky DIY solutions and ingenious life hacks. After all, BRÖÖ, had hacked hair care, using actual craft beer to deliver B vitamins and proteins without any chemical hangover. We put a spotlight on those who didn’t give a hoot about doing things the “right” way – and were having a ball writing their own rules. Just like BRÖÖ, they were doing things THEIR way, and they were free and gorgeous, with their “festival hair” bouncing in the sunshine because if it.
We made it an anthem: “Here’s to you and the way you BRÖÖ.”
“Here’s to you and the way you BRÖÖ” became our rallying cry and informed every piece of communication we produced: visual, verbal, film, still. No matter what, we celebrated the quirky and ingenious solves our BRÖÖMASTERS were making.
With a digital launch that involved five videos, display, search and social, BRÖÖ established itself as the epitome of relaxed, friendly and fun hair, and the brand you’d want to share a beer with.
Beer gives beauty a new language.
When your shampoo is made out of beer you can’t take yourself too seriously. We had fun with the language using beer references like #happyhourhair and “the brew for strength and shine,” while making sure we never ventured into crassness.
Letting our hair down
Director Brook Pifer developed an instant rapport with our fun-loving cast. She gave them the freedom to be who they were, connect as friends, and beautifully captured the hair going along for the ride. Flowing, glowing, swinging, bouncing, the hair was heroic without being the hero. Beyond creating gorgeous videos, the film provided a plethora of stills for banners, social, website, etc.
The results are real:
The campaign is still rolling out: initial videos and search in launched at the end of January, social ads and display banners in February and Social Content in March. We set out to drive awareness and encourage women to “click to get closer” to BROO - and that is happening. Banners have well above average conversion rates. The videos, which have a high instream completion rate, are also encouraging an impressive clickthrough. When encountered in social, they are inspiring very high post engagement.
Today BRÖÖ is a brand that is out there making self-expression, joy, and effortless beauty a part of the hair care conversation, which makes women happy. And that, makes Fancy happy.
