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John Frieda promotes revived line with social media-geared party

Kao USA Inc.'s John Frieda Hair Care brand and former reality television star Lauren Conrad are teaming up to promote the revival of an old fan favorite collection, Beach Blonde, through social media.

The Beach Blonde line was discontinued 10 years ago along with the extremely popular sea salt spray, Blonde Ocean Waves. From then on, there has been a nonstop outcry for the return of the product, which has since been amplified with the popularization of social media.

?Social media, while it might have helped with the comeback, most likely is not the reason for the comeback, but the popularity of the product itself," said Marci Troutman, CEO of SiteMinis, Atlanta. "Social media will indeed help with the comeback to make the event reach many more consumers than it would have when it was discontinued in 2000.?

Ms. Troutman is not affiliated with John Frieda but agreed to comment as an industry expert. John Frieda did not respond by press deadline. 

Events paired with social media
Kao's Beach Blonde collection comprises a salt spray, shampoo and conditioner and the lightening spray.

The comeback of the Beach Blonde collection launched with a winter beach party Feb. 11 in New York where guests were encouraged to post pictures to social media with the hashtag #beachblonde. 
Hair say

Although the event took place inside New York entertainment venue The Garage, a beautiful personalized sandcastle and a boardwalk red carpet were built specifically to use as the perfect background for Instagram pictures.  

Promotion through social media did not end with the event. Any inspiration for beach-inspired hair is still encouraged to be posted on different applications with hashtag #beachblonde. 

John Frieda plans to continue the conversation by sharing how-to videos with Ms. Conrad on different mobile platforms such as Instagram and YouTube in the future. 

?Reach and frequency of social media can hold many benefits with campaigns for beauty companies,? Ms. Troutman said. ?The first being the viral aspect of social media, with sharing, liking, posting pics and videos before, after and during the event.

?Secondly, a campaign utilizing social media during an event opens up quite a few options for contests, receiving a trial product, sign-up campaigns to allow consumers to learn more, to name a few,? she said.

Although buzz around the beach party event was strong on social media, it seems since then activity has been fading. 

Multiple campaigns
Beach Blonde is not the only campaign that John Frieda Hair Care is currently promoting. 

During New York Fashion Week John Frieda hair stylists prepped the Rachel Zoe show models and posted many back-stage photos to the brand?s United States Instagram using #MeAndJohn, another hashtag created by John Frieda. 

After New York Fashion Week, the hair care brand produced a time-lapsed video of hair stylists working on a model before the runway show with the hashtag. 

Also recently, a video was posted of employees passing out free samples in Chicago on Random Acts of Kindness Day with the same hashtag. 

Both videos can be viewed on Instagram and Facebook. 

 She's got the look

John Frieda Hair Care also launched a new app in 2014 that consumers can use in-store for a personalized shopping experience as well as receiving available coupons (see story).

?Each and every campaign in today's world of mobile and social saturation should have a mobile-optimized component,? Ms. Troutman said. ?The majority of consumers will be accessing the content on a wireless device and if the content isn't viewable from a wireless device, the percent of views and actions on a campaign will be cut by at least half, if not more. 

?Knowing the audience is key to today's success in marketing,? she said.

Please click here for a video of Lauren Conrad explaining her take on Beach Blonde and blondes

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York.