• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, August 9, 2024

Anyone on TikTok this summer has heard “I’m looking for a man in finance,” the wonderfully snarky 15-word ditty created by Girl On Couch.

SkinCeuticals was listening too and decided creator Megan Boni was just the person to help it debut P-TIOX, a peptide anti-wrinkle serum. While there are no fine lines yet on the 26-year-old influencer, Boni's meteoric rise to fame does say plenty about why women should invest in themselves, in the likely event that the “trust fund, 6’5”, blue eyes” part of the song doesn’t pan out.

Boni has remixed her famous song, and the effort also involves a diverse group of “Skinvestor Advisors,” all highlighting the importance of investing in your skin.

Angela Hildebrand, general manager of SkinCeuticals U.S., tells Marketing Daily more about the campaign.

Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Marketing Daily: This is a fun campaign, going from stupid-silly to smart. Megan Boni is just, well, some girl on a couch who writes this 15-word song and becomes a TikTok sensation. And you’ve connected it to a product launch and campaign that’s got actual meat. How did you get there?

Angela Hildebrand: We’ve got this new P-TIOX product, launched on August 1. This is a clinically-backed serum, which helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and reveals glass radiance on the skin. It's a novel technology, and we haven't had a launch like this in a while. We started by looking for consumers who were ready for aesthetic procedures and maybe interested in toxins. And we came up with the positioning that this product is a savvy investment in yourself, offering the greatest return on your skincare routine.

So that's how this idea came about, by taking a look at Megan’s song and combining her silliness with our launch. It’s about investing in yourself.

Marketing Daily: This is also a serious problem. There’s a horrifying number of women in this country who are poor, especially older women. And you’ve tied the campaign to influencers in the investment community, like Vivian Tu and Simran Kaur, who focus on that.

Hildebrand: Yes. The idea was to flip Megan’s song and add in the educational component. The campaign is really about being self-reliant and confident in yourself.

We want to empower individuals to make more informed, confident decisions in their financial choices and their skincare routines combined.

Marketing Daily: What makes her fun to watch is that she is 100% insincere, like so much TikTok Gen Z humor. They make fun of everything, which makes them watchable but sometimes tricky when acting as brand spokespeople. Was that a challenge?

Hildebrand: What we do is entertainment, right? It's bringing medical and financial expertise together in something people want to watch. And we want to meets them where they are. We’ve got to adapt to that. This is the first campaign of its kind for us, and we’re loving the results so far. I can’t keep up with all the consumer comments, but they are enjoying it, too.

Marketing Daily: Talk to us about demographics. Boni is in her 20s, and we hear so much about tweens shopping Ulta and Sephora for anti-aging products. Seems like older people are more likely to spend $148 on P-TIOX.

 Hildebrand: We aren’t thinking so much about targeting an age, but a mindset.

We have seen a shift in skincare, especially in the last five years. With social media, people are more aware of themselves and how they look and are more educated on skincare. They’re thinking about anti-aging younger and younger. And you should start taking care of your skin as early as you can.

Marketing Daily: Do you think of SkinCeuticals as a luxury brand?

Hildebrand: Not necessarily. We are a brand backed by 30-plus years of research, science and innovation. We’ve got clinical data that backs up the efficacy of our products, and price points can be misleading. What's going into that bottle are pure ingredients, and it sometimes takes us eight or ten years to develop it. And because we’re medically based, we were founded in different channels.

Marketing Daily: SkinCeuticals introduced one of the first vitamin C serums 20 years ago, which has since become a category staple. Is that your best seller?

Hildebrand: Yes, C E Ferulic is the leader in the market and one of our top-selling products. We were the pioneers in vitamin C and are still the antioxidant authority. That’s an honor, but when you're the leader in a category, you get many competent competitors.

Marketing Daily: Can you give some indication of how SkinCeuticals is doing right now? Circana recently reported that sales of prestige skincare products climbed 7% in the first half of this year.

Hildebrand: We’ve forecasted 12% growth for the overall industry for the full year. And while we don’t have midyear results for our brand yet, and I’m unable to comment on our sales, I can say we’re doing well. And we expect this innovation to be an A-Lister for us.