2013 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

We managed to break the stereotypical attitude towards a hair removal product and convert it into a beauty brand. We received 1,133 applicants to the make over competition. The make over TV program was viewed by almost 1.4 million viewers in total. The fan page was amongst the top 5 ranked FMCG pages in Egypt with 372,000 fans till date and is the biggest community amongst Veet worldwide. With 0.7% engagement rate, Veet fans on Facebook were the most engaged group in Egypt. Veet did a roaring business and witnessed a 100% growth in sales and went out of stock.

Creative Execution

Mona Zaky scored the highest amongst the influential Egyptian celebrities in the research conducted to identify our celebrity. After a lot of convincing, Mona agreed to be the face of Veet in Egypt. Apart from the endorsements on media and packaging Mona was also utilised for the launch of Veet Facebook fan page. Mona invited the aspiring fans to participate in an application tailored to their needs based on different looks of a girl life such as recently engaged, veiled etc.. We partnered with a leading TV station in Egypt and created an exclusive show called “Gamalek Ma3 Veet” that captured the journey of the 7 lucky participants over a period of 1.5 months. After their journey, we let it to the fans to pick their favourite make over. The winner got a trip the most fashionable cities in the world to Paris with cash reward for shopping.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Veet, a premium hair removal cream, struggled on sales and awareness in Egypt ever since its launch. Hair removal is surely a regular part of their beauty regime, however, they usually rely on homemade reliable and affordable solution called “halawa”. Hair removal, unlike their other beauty regime is not openly discussed in Egypt, as it is very personal and considered merely a hygienic function. While there are lots of celebrities’ endorsements for other beauty products, there were none for hair removal in Egypt. Keeping in mind the sensitivity of the topic and the fact that Egyptian girls don’t like to talk about these topics in public or amongst their friends as its considered a taboo, we saw a huge opportunity in shifting perception from a strictly functional to a beauty brand by doing what was never attempted before – getting a celebrity to endorse a hair removal brand!