Brief: To highlight the iconic Vaseline tin as a contemporary classic and an everyday handbag essential.
Method: To bring this contemporary classic positioning to life, the Vaseline brand hosted a three-week exhibition at Selfridges, entitled ‘Vaseline Life in A Bag’, depicting a history of handbags and their contents over the last fifty years. Vaseline products were present in each bag to demonstrate its ongoing and timeless appeal. An exclusive feature was negotiated in Glamour magazine to photograph a series of celebrities naked except for their handbag, these celebs took part in return for a donation to cancer charity Gilda’s Club. To position Vaseline as a contemporary, forward thinking brand, renowned handbag designer Orla Kiely created a ‘bag of the future’ and celebrities and opinion formers were surveyed on what they thought this bag would contain.
Results: The ‘Vaseline Life in A Bag’ exhibition generated 52 print and broadcast editorials with opportunities to see and hear in excess of 40 million. In addition to the exclusive features in Glamour, M and the Express on Sunday, coverage included Heat, Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph, Time Out, Capital Radio and even Italy’s La Repubblica. London Today and BBC Newsroom Southeast both ran news items with footage of the exhibition and interviews with the curator. 5,000 visitors attended the exhibition and interacted with the brand. Via in-house message evaluation of the activity and proved that the campaign had been successful in positioning Vaseline as a contemporary classic and a handbag essential.
Endorsement: The Vaseline Life in a Bag exhibition was highly commended in PR Week’s ‘Best Consumer Campaign’ category.
