Anomaly created a radical new campaign for Coty brand Sally Hansen

Cristina Blanaru Branding, Creativity

Anomaly creates the 1st ever global brand campaign for the Coty brand founded by the iconic leader, innovator and entrepreneur, Sally Hansen. The “Self-Made Beauty” ‘s TVC, online-video and brand campaign are also bringing to life a new brand promise and re-imagine a world made for and by self-made women, from entrepreneurs and activists to young mothers and athletes. The campaign is designed to celebrate female diversity and challenge common stereotypes. Anomaly was appointed last year by COTY with a clear remit to evolve Sally Hansen across communications and develop a new brand identity and logo design.

The work was led by in-depth conversations with women and the brand’s long-time users. Anomaly’s new brand strategy and campaign celebrate beauty as an inherent tool for empowering women to feel confident and ready to take on the world.

Sally Hansen herself was the inspiration for Self-Made Beauty. The 1940’s entrepreneur created a company that has gone on to become the #1 brand in Nail Color and Nail Care in multiple countries around the world. Her shrewd business sense and success was matched by her iconic style – demonstrating that beauty and achievement are not mutually exclusive, and that beauty has the power to inspire and enable women to be their best selves.

The campaign is designed to take women on a journey, starting with Sally herself as an original self-made woman, then celebrating real entrepreneurial and ambitious women from around the world to highlight the importance of Self-Made Beauty in their success and in their own right. The brand was built on the belief that beauty is better when you do it yourself with products made by and for women. The campaign, therefore, aims to kick-off and develop the concept of the “At Home Salon”, emphasising the salon-quality but simplicity in application of Sally Hansen products to empower modern women.

The new brand platform will be brought to life across all consumer-facing mediums including a 15 and 20 second TVC/online-video that will be broadcast across the 50+ countries in which the brand is currently sold. The work will also be amplified across digital media channels and in-store animations with like-minded creative executions. Media planning was provided by Zenith Media.

The music for the campaign was written by self-made woman, singer songwriter, Diana Gordon, who is known for her empowering, feminist lyrics and work with Beyoncé on the Lemonade album. Diana’s track ‘Woman’, is featured throughout the campaign.

In addition, a brand film will be released, called Shetopia, which features self-made CEOs, business leaders, bloggers, advocates, athletes and other inspiring women who every day are paving the way to a more equal world. They include Claire Wasserman, an equal pay advocate and founder of Ladies Get Paid, an organization that helps women rise up in the workforce; Angela Benton, cancer survivor, businesswoman and CEO; and motorcycle mogul, Jessica Haggett, who started the largest all-female motorcycle collective in the world.

Anomaly created the film with a mainly female creative and production team, headed up by director Natalie Rae. Natalie is known for her work on women’s issues, having directed a global PSA for UN Women that promotes female leadership and brings awareness to the low numbers of political positions held by women in the world. Shetopia is designed to be an irreverent take on traditional male roles and features scenes inspired by in-depth research – each sequence shows a situation in which women have reported a common stereotype or an experience of societal prejudice. The film, therefore, features a corporate culture in which men are fighting for better representation, older women dating younger men and female athletes playing on teams alongside men.

The globally-diverse set of influencers featured in the film and campaign include:

  • Claire Wasserman (@LadiesGetPaid) – founder of “Ladies get Paid”, an organization that helps women advocate for themselves at work.
  • Jaclyn Johnson (@jaclynrjohnson) – founder of “Create & Cultivate”, investor, supporter of female entrepreneurs in the digital space, Forbes 30 under 30.
  • Angela Benton (@abenton) – businesswoman, cancer survivor, and mother of three. She is a pioneer of diversity in the technology industry.
  • Gina Ybarra (@huntforstyles) – a successful fashion blogger who dropped her successful career in finance and decided to take her life in her own hands.
  • Sarah-Jane Adams (@saramaijewels) – A gemologist and jeweler by trade, she was pushed into the limelight when her daughter uploaded a photo of her, which went viral and has since spawned a successful modelling career.
  • Cynthia Andrew (@simplycyn) – An attorney by day and a lifestyle blogger by night.
  • Katie Sturino (@the12ishstyle) – a challenger of traditional fashion rules and promoter of femininity in all sizes.
  • Jessica Haggett (@jessicahaggett) -founder of the world’s largest all female motorcycle group, which spans across 18 countries and 138 cities.
  • Eniola Aluko (@enialu) – the Chelsea Football Club and England professional women’s footballer with a first class degree in Law.

Anomaly created the campaign for Sally Hansen in order to speak to the modern do-it-all woman, who is savvy about her media choices and discerning about her purchase decisions. The campaign is intended to be an inspiration for debate and discourse, a brave alternative to the traditional category communications of trade advertising based solely on price and convenience.

Jeremy Lowenstein, VP of Global Marketing, Sally Hansen: “The making of and inspiration for this campaign started 3 years ago with the search for the brand’s namesake. The brand’s new platform of “Self-Made Beauty” truly embodies the life and spirit of Sally Hansen, the founder. My hope is that this campaign empowers and inspires even more women to take beauty in their own hands, so that they, too, can create their best selves, them self, every single day.”

Karina Wilsher, Global Chief Operating Officer, Anomaly: “It’s been wonderful to have an all-female team at Anomaly bring fresh energy to the Sally Hansen brand with a new brand identity and logo, retail expression and a whole series of global campaigns. Sally Hansen was an exceptional female entrepreneur, with a ton of spirit – the perfect muse for the ‘playful and polished’ world imagined in this work.”

CREDITS 

Director: Natalie Rae

Director of Photography: Rina Yang

Editor: Hollie Singer

Sound Mixer: Elizabeth Mcclanahan

Founded just over 10 years ago, Anomaly is a difficult to define, but exciting to work at ‘new model’ agency. Driven by a passionate and entrepreneurial culture encompassing a diverse, elastic set of skills, Anomaly has offices in London, Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Amsterdam, Berlin and Shanghai. Clients include: Anheuser-Busch InBev, Beats, Diageo, Diesel, Google, LEGO, Virgin Trains and Universal Music Group. Anomaly has been recognised for a wide range of work and IP, covering both effectiveness and craft excellence including: Ad Age’s 2017 Agency of the Year, Cannes Lions, D&AD pencils Effies, Fast Company’s Most Innovative, Jay Chiat, Digiday Awards and the Mashies -among the usual suspects.  Anomaly has been honoured with a few less conventional accolades as well, such as being awarded Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2016 for hmbldt, Toy of The Year for Mighty Jaxx, plus two Emmys for a television series, all of which the agency created and co-owns.