“Where some people were making fun of our commercial, we wanted to be part of the fun, but take it back and own it,” Kelly Buchanan Spillers, CeraVe’s global head of digital and social, told ADWEEK. “We’re hoping for a global movement.”The new ad also draws inspiration from the remix trend on social media, which […]
“Where some people were making fun of our commercial, we wanted to be part of the fun, but take it back and own it,” Kelly Buchanan Spillers, CeraVe’s global head of digital and social, told ADWEEK. “We’re hoping for a global movement.”The new ad also draws inspiration from the remix trend on social media, which has included Charli XCX’s popular 2024 album, Brat. CeraVe’s team was inspired when it learned that the “Hey It’s Me” monologue was being used as the background for numerous TikTok posts, often to comedic effect. One of those, in which the jingle is used in a karaoke performance, received more than 28 million views on TikTok.
Educating while entertaining
Plus, she added: “We think our remix is a bop.”
Going forward, social and influencer marketing will remain a “core priority” for the brand to engage younger audiences, but it will continue to advertise in traditional channels like TV to reach older generations who also use its products, Buchanan Spillers said. The new ad includes people of all ages and also features different skin conditions, she added.
CeraVe has dubbed its approach to marketing “edutainment,” a cross between education and entertainment. Last year, it spoofed film and TV genres and borrowed tropes from pop culture, releasing a soap opera about skincare evils and a romcom trailer in which the matchmaker was a dermatologist and “the one” was a bottle of moisturizer.
The stage is set! Advertisers, don’t miss this cultural moment. ADWEEK House The Big Game is headed to New Orleans on February 7. RSVP.The most famous of these campaigns was last year’s award-winning Super Bowl ad starring actor Michael Cera. Weeks before the Big Game, CeraVe enlisted Cera and numerous influencers to spark rumors that the actor was a skincare influencer with ties to the brand, finally revealing the joke during a Super Bowl ad break.
