This week, a month after rolling out its first-ever influencer-fronted campaign, Cetaphil introduced a brand refresh starting with a two-day L.A. pop-up dubbed SkinLabs. The goal is to highlight and celebrate the science behind the brand.
Ahead of SkinLabs, which kicked off on Tuesday, Cetaphil quietly dropped a new campaign with the theme “For Everyone’s Sensitive Skin.” Supporting the science-centered refresh, the campaign calls attention to the fact that Cetaphil’s products are safe for everyone, regardless of age, gender or race.
“I come from a world where relevance and advocacy are king and being a part of the cultural conversation is essential,” said Tara Loftis, global president of skincare at Cetaphil. She referenced the brand’s 2023 report which revealed over 70% of the population identifies as having sensitive skin and Gen Z is 2.5 times more likely to have sensitive skin.
Loftis joined the company in January and hit the ground running, she said. “I immediately started talking to the consumer to understand how real people perceived the brand,” she said. “I realized we had an opportunity to build brand affinity and differentiation within the category and consumers. … I wanted consumers to feel connected to our brand, not just aware of the name.” And that led to the refresh, she said.
Cetaphil’s refresh is not a packaging update, though small tweaks have recently been made to its packaging. Instead, it’s a brand visual refresh, Loftis said. Modernized fonts will be used across its digital channels and in-store. In addition, the brand is bringing forward a secondary logo to its retail shelf designs and website.
Cetaphil invited 40 influencers and media from around the world to attend the SkinLabs event, plus it tapped dermatologist Dr. Dan Belkin and TikTok creator Griffin Maxwell (1.2 million followers) to appear in campaign videos and digital assets. Simultaneously, the refresh rolled out on the brand’s digital channels.
This refresh and corresponding campaign mark the third major marketing push from Cetaphil this year. First was the brand’s “Game Time Glow” campaign during Super Bowl LVIII in February. Although Cetaphil did not run a national spot, the spot ranked in the Super Bowl’s top 50 brands based on media coverage, amassing 5.6 billion earned impressions across 156 headlines, Loftis said. In September, Cetaphil tapped Katie Fang (@katiefanggg, 5.4 million TikTok followers) to help market the launch of its Gentle Exfoliating collection.
“The changes we’ve made so far this year, particularly around the Katie Fang campaign, have led to significant global growth for Cetaphil,” Loftis said. “We’ve seen our impressions go up 150% this year.”
Cetaphil, owned by Swiss skin-care company Galderma, crossed $1 billion in net sales in 2023, according to Galderma’s full-year 2023 report. In August, it was announced that L’Oreal acquired a 10% stake in Galderma for an unspecified amount, as previously reported by Glossy.
In terms of next year’s goals, Loftis said Cetaphil is working to expand its digital footprint to a global audience. “We have to focus on multiple platforms around the world and not just in the U.S.,” she said. To do so, the brand will be leaning into consumer-generated content and hyper-focusing on localized marketing.
