The Goal

-Drive Canadian awareness: Create widespread awareness for the Dyson Supersonic among new verticals of media, including beauty, lifestyle and tech audiences.
-Communications goal: Transform and position Dyson in the Canadian consumer’s mind as a credible brand in the beauty space, while introducing the Dyson Supersonic as this year’s most innovative and advanced hair care tool.
-Impressions goal: Targets were set above the industry standard for the allocated budget at 20 million with a $0.003 cost per contact.

Target

-Primary: Females 18-24: a young audience with a high-degree of interest in fashion and lots of time dedicated to their beauty routine. This audience may not be traditional fans of the Dyson brand, but are willing to try something new and exciting.

-Secondary: Females 25-34: a young professional, high achiever with plenty of disposable income to dedicate to looking good. They are constantly on trend.

-Tertiary: Urban Males: male grooming continues to grow as a category, and this target is looking for products that merge their love of technology and beauty.

Insight and Strategy

To build allure and create desire at launch, agency Citizen Relations did extensive research into the most credible beauty media and influencers to seed the machine with and create excitement, while reassuring and educating consumers about the unique technology that went into the machine, and justify the $499 price point.

The research also uncovered that the target often goes online to find ‘how-to’ explanations and DIY videos to achieve looks at home. As part of our launch, the team ensured content was developed to address these native search behaviours.

Insight: Fashionistas are spending less time in salons and increasingly look for tips and tools on how to get the look they love at home. Where previous generations looked to stylists, today’s beauty loving community look to online tutorials and how-to videos and want premium tools to get the job done right.

Dyson’s Belief: Dyson addresses the problems others ignore. For the Supersonic launch, the team wanted to bring to life the technological and machine innovations that make the Supersonic so unique to make sure Canadian consumers have confidence in the brand’s entry to the beauty space.

Dyson’s Role: To disrupt the beauty industry with the year’s most innovative hair tool.

Reason to Believe: Dyson spent US$71 million and tested more than 1,000 miles of human hair to develop the machine.

The Idea: The Evolution of Hair Care – The Dyson Supersonic.

The Plan

The target was kept aware of the Supersonic through multiple touch points:

-The Supersonic was pre-launched by inviting targeted beauty media and influencers to an exclusive preview. Located in a stylish Toronto loft, media were greeted by Dyson representative, Jessica Danziger-Lin, and Canadian Supersonic ambassador and celebrity hairstylist, Matthew Collins. This unique preview opportunity secured long lead coverage and conversation.
-As part of the Dyson Supersonic™ Global Launch, the team brought nine of Canada’s most notable beauty media to New York City on an exclusive press trip, where Sir James Dyson himself spoke about the explosive entry into the category, hair science, and the creativity that went into getting here. Alongside him was celebrity hairstylist, Jen Atkin who spoke from a stylist perspective about why this machine was so revolutionary.
-As a final phase, the agency worked on driving buzz around the Canadian retail launch, providing an additional opportunity to celebrate Dyson’s bold entrance into the market. Dyson Canada partnered with The Hudson’s Bay Company as the exclusive in-store retailer and the team planned an in-store event titled, “Fringe & Frings.” Guests attended a private event at Frings restaurant, hosted by Matthew Collins, who discussed fall hair trends and the Supersonic, encouraging social sharing and content for traditional media. All guests were gifted with a machine of their own to close the night.

The Results

Throughout the launch campaign, the team achieved:
-Media relations: Generated a total of 302 traditional press hits and 161,429,073 impressions and a $0.0004 cost per contact from tier A publications including FASHION Magazine, Toronto Sun, Elle Canada and Quebec, Canadian Living, The Globe and Mail, The Kit, CTV News, Huffington Post and more. The final results surpassed target impressions by 85 per cent.
-Influencer/celebrity seeding: Notable influencers, including: Maripier Morin, Jillian Harris, Anthony Deluca (Youtuber) and David D’Amour (Celine Dion’s hair stylist) all received a machine and posted. Total social reach across platforms, including Instagram, Twitter and Facebook totalled more than two million impressions.