Smile Master Class series
Colgate-Palmolive
Issue 61 | January 2022
Agency
VMLY&R France and RedFuse
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Dimitri Guerassimov Creative Director Vitor Menezes, Ricardo Barra Lima Creatives David Dominguez, Nicole Jaramillo, Marta Tomás
Production Team
Motion Designer Romain Montagut Producer Barbara Safarova
Other Credits
Client team Colgate-Palmolive Vice President, Marketing Europe Colgate-Palmolive Jean Bernard Vidaillet General Manager, Colgate Oral Care, Europe Robert Wilson Director, Integrated Marketing Communications, Europe Laurent Cayet Colgate Equity Director, Europe Jimena Rodriguez Colgate Sr. Brand Manager, Europe Luca Caiafa Managing Director Peter Harrison Head of Clients Services and Digital Bruno Toporovschi Account Director Sindy NG Head of Strategy Elizabeth Foord Strategist Antoine Nicolas
Date
September 2021
Background
The pandemic made life difficult for many people. Yale Professor Laurie Santos created a ‘happiness’ course which became a global hit with more than 2.6 million students enrolled from 200 countries.
Inspired by these online videos, Colgate- Palmolive wanted to help adults reap the benefits of smiling more.
Idea
Because smiling is believed to help reduce stress and even boost immune systems, the brand tapped into the best instructors in the world when it comes to smiles: children.
Based on research that said where adults smile just 20 times a day, children smile 300 times, a series of four Masterclasses were filmed in which children celebrated the smaller things in life, from travel to fancy dress to the joys of being out in the rain.
Much like yawning, seeing someone else's smile triggered viewers to smile too thus bringing a little psychological lift to their day.
The campaign had a dedicated microsite (https://www.colgate.com/en-gb/smilesmaster- class) and was rolled out on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube across Europe.
Results
Without paid media support the campaign has reached tens of thousands of people through social platforms and Colgate-Palmolive’s own channels.
The intention is to have a long-term halo effect on brand equity.
Our Thoughts
The way the videos are shot, you go from a dull and dreary thirty-year-old moaning about how the rain messes up her hair to a kid beaming with joy at the thought of splashy puddles and tilting her head back to ‘drink’ the falling drops. And I defy you not to start smiling when you watch.
Simon Law, Chief Strategy Officer at Wunderman Thompson London, once defined an insight as being an idea so absurdly obvious you wonder why no-one had ever thought of it before. This is one of those insights. If Colgate-Palmolive want to own smiles, this is a genuinely big idea that they can (and should) do a lot more with.