Social Media Campaign Review: Nivea Tan Tag and Win

Objective

Nivea has been one of the leaders of the moisturising skin products segment since long but lately, the lotion-cum-sunscreen range has trumped the age-old creamy, softening lotions that made Nivea a household name.

Frankly, given the unrelenting Indian sun, I’m surprised that it didn’t happen sooner. But now that it has, Nivea has to find a way for its cell whitening repair lotion with UV protection to stay ahead of competitors like the much more affordable Vaseline and VLCC skin lightening lotions.

Hence, the Tan Tag & Win contest. However, I am quite stumped about the brand’s intention because unlike the marketing aims of pretty much every cosmetic brand on this planet, this one aims to celebrate your flaws and reward you for them! Go figure.

Execution

On the Facebook app, you can either upload your own picture of a tan line and add flavour to it with a uniquely creative tagline or you can vote for other people’s pictures and witty slogans.

I can’t imagine why anyone would want the world to ogle at their unseemly tan lines because that’s not exactly the same as sexy sun-kissed skin. But if you do have the guts to go for it, then you stand to win a truckload of free Nivea goodies so you will no longer have to sport those tan lines.

Meanwhile if you feel like voting, you're in for a bigger challenge. Most of the photos have nothing to do with tanning and people have posted absolutely random slogans about religion and what not. And I wouldn't go as far as to call the nondescript descriptions 'taglines'.

Positives

Well it’s certainly a good way of letting the world see what the lack of use of sun protection can do to your skin.

But on a more serious note, the landing page of the app tells you clearly that you have two options if you are one of those beauty criminals – you could use your beauty negligence to turn over a new leaf by winning Nivea products or you could do it right away by purchasing a bottle of Nivea cell repair lotion.

So maybe a lot of people chose the latter and did Nivea a favour.

Scope for Improvement

Firstly, the participation is nothing to speak of. There are zero or two votes at the max on most of the photos already uploaded. The photos are of extremely poor resolution, there is no provision to comment and the buzz appears to be completely missing.

Secondly, how many of us have no experience with photo editing tools at all? I’d say a very minor percentage. The rest of us could easily create fake tan lines on our pictures and upload them in exchange for a few free goodies.

Frankly, the photograph of the two smiling models on Nivea’s app page appeared photoshopped to me. Unless those models wanted to voluntarily commit career suicide. So this is one if those strange contests, sort of like backhanded compliments where you’re not really sure whether to feel happy or not.

I sincerely feel that this should have been a challenge campaign – where you upload a photo of your tanned skin, accept the error of your ways and wow to make a change.

After thirty days of using Nivea’s skin whitening lotion, you upload a picture of the same body part with no tan lines! Voila! You have a winning campaign there which could work with the same prize incentive, just with a more positive note to it.