2011 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

In Lebanon, a small country with an online population of just 1 million, the amount of traffic directed to the My Crest Smile website was phenomenal with 300,000 unique users – that’s 1 out of every 3 people online voted for 5,000 contestants. There were 40,000 posted comments. The site shot up to number 44 in Lebanon in terms of popularity. The campaign became the talk of the town, generating 4.7 million impressions and $990,000 in PR value. In purely business terms, Crest Pearl Sales indexed 137 vs. target and volume market share indexed 122 vs. 2009.

Creative Execution

EveEveryone looks better when they smile; it’s the easiest accessory to wear. Crest created a virtual beauty pageant- www.mycrestsmile.com. An ad campaign put everyone on notice that a celebrity hunt was going down. OOH, TV and radio drove consumers to the website. Women across Lebanon posted pictures on the site and allowed visitors to act as judges. To drive excitement and participation, the winner got the opportunity to be featured on the cover of Lebanon’s top magazine, Femme (the Lebanese version of Cosmopolitan) and would also get special interviews on Talk of the Town, a locally licensed version of CBS programming.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

When launching their newest whitening variant, Pearl, Crest wanted to move away from the traditional dentist image and enter their beauty world. Lebanese women prize physical perfection, looking beautiful is THEIR way of life (Source: TGI Lebanon 2009) Most brands looking to target Lebanese women resort to finding a celebrity endorser. Celebrity endorsements are the 2nd most powerful influencer amongst Arab women (Source: P&G Hair care influencer study, 2008) but why pay for a celebrity when you can involve the community to create one?