Table of Contents 6 2012 OVATION Awards Winning Entries

OVATION Awards Winning Entry
Communication Management
Special Events with budget up to $50,000
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
Entrants’ Names: Cathy Mitchell
Organization’s Name: APEX Public Relations Inc.
Division/Category: Division 1, Category 6a: Special Event with budget up to 50K
Title: YWCA Facility gets a Makeover care of Jergens Overnight Fix Nightly Restoring Moisturizer
Time Period: May – November 2011
Description: A new lotion’s name, Jergens Overnight Fix, inspired the teams at APEX and Jergens to do an
“overnight fix” of their own. The result? A 24‐hour makeover of a downtown Toronto shelter in lieu of a
traditional media relations product launch.
1. BUSINESS NEED/OPPORTUNITY
The skincare company Jergens has been making personal care products since its inception in 1882. Its
two stronghold categories, soap and lotion, have established Jergens as a household brand name. With
over a century of product development and launches under its belt, a constant business need and
opportunity for the brand is to continually introduce products that meet consumer needs and
preferences and that will drive continued business growth within the value channel.
In 2011, Jergens identified the opportunity to increase night‐time lotion use. As a result, they developed
Jergens Overnight Fix Nightly Restoring Moisturizer, a lotion that promised to alleviate a week’s worth of
dryness overnight for visibly smoother skin. The product was firmly positioned within the value
category, at a price point of $7 CAD. As agency of record for all Kao Canada (Kao Canada is the parent
company of the Jergens Brand), APEX Public Relations was briefed on the project and given the PR
objective to “drive beauty press coverage”. The consumer team at APEX is accustomed to clients’ desire
to gain coverage among the beauty press. And with this specific product launch, there were two key
factors at play that made this an uphill battle. First: the budget. The total budget for the program was
initially $40,000 with an incremental addition of $10,000. APEX has conducted a high volume of
successful beauty product launches, and many were in the $80,000+ range. Second: the product would
not be the first of its kind and was not first to market. There are other general challenges with driving
beauty press coverage. The beauty pages of Canada’s foremost fashion and beauty magazines are
brimming with the latest innovations to make us more beautiful, as well as opinions editorializing what
defines beauty this particular season. The competition among brands to obtain a small slice of these
pages is fierce. A common tactic of global beauty brands with deep pockets is to host high impact launch
events that deliver memorable experiences for the beauty media. Event elements often include
celebrity appearances, high‐end venues and lavish gifts. With a $50,000 budget, and a not‐sonewsworthy
product (not first to market or unique to category), how would APEX meet its client’s
coverage objectives? The team at APEX used the product name (Overnight Fix) as inspiration to create a
paradigm shift in beauty launches. This launch would not involve a lavish special event; quite the
opposite. Asking themselves the fundamental question: “what can we FIX overnight?” the team
ultimately developed a strategy that would throw out the traditional approach for beauty launches. In