Best Fashion Or Beauty Online Campaign

A leading brand in Europe, Weleda lagged significantly in the U.S. market and struggled to capture category growth after being outspent 20:1 by competitors. The natural beauty products market in the U.S. is saturated with “new” and “shiny” brands.

As of July 2017, the Natural Organic Personal Care (NOPC) market was growing at +7.4% yet Weleda was in steep decline with the largest customer, Whole Foods, declining at -6% year over year. Category growth was driven primarily by Conventional Retailers (+10.2%) like Target and from Online/Digital (+11%) like Amazon.

The strategic communications challenge was to reposition the brand with the consumers who were growing the category, who are primarily outside of the traditional Natural category. As an almost century old Natural company, Weleda was highly idealistic but lacked the knowledge and discipline to compete with major CPG marketers like Johnson and Johnson (Aveeno) and Clorox (Burt’s Bees).

Weleda was also completely outgunned when it came to media spend. Aveeno spent just shy of $100 million in ad spend in 2016 and 2017 and Burt’s Bees spent just under $30 million. Weleda’s media spend did not even show up in the competitive tracking tools but was actually at $400,000 in working media – making Weleda outspent vs. Aveeno 250 to 1 and vs. Burt’s Bees 75 to 1. It is an extraordinary challenge to penetrate this market without overspending, and Weleda knew that.

Contributors:

Creative:	Dave Sonderman
Strategy:	Lance Porigow
Creative:	Ameena Meer
Production:	Mike Long
Programmatic:	Jaren McKinley
Marketing Technology:	Joel Acheson
Media:	Megan Dunick
Creative:	Brittany Thomas
Project Management:	Megan DiDomenico
Biddable Media:	Sydney Boyd

THE SHIPYARD

Location: United States