Olay (P&G)

Managing end-to-end creative campaign delivery across two major category launches to drive brand premiumisation in China.

Olay CellScience product key visual, China launch 2017
Olay CellScience Magic key visual, China launch 2017

CellScience · product key visual · China 2017

IndustryBeauty
MarketChina
Date2017 – 2018
RoleAccount Manager / Agency Project LeadSaatchi & Saatchi Shanghai
About the brand

Olay is P&G’s mass-market skincare brand and one of the largest beauty brands in China.

Olay Yabuli body care product key visual, China launch 2018

Yabuli · product key visual · China 2018

My role & ownership

Strategic and creative lead partnering with P&G from upstream product co-creation and consumer research to big idea conceptualisation and full-funnel campaign execution.

Pillar 1Upstream strategy & product co-creationPartnered directly with client teams on consumer insights, product testing and proposition design, shaping the product story before the campaign brief.

Pillar 2Big idea & creative architectureLed the end-to-end creative process: translating research insights into the core narrative, steering creative squads from conceptual pitch to multi-channel assets.

Pillar 3Multi-stakeholder governanceServed as the strategic bridge across P&G brand leadership, internal creative teams, PR and media partners, navigating multi-tiered approvals to ensure timely delivery.

Pillar 4Production & craft excellenceGuarded premium craft across touchpoints while managing high-tier production budgets and vendor negotiations to elevate brand perception into prestige territory.

The ambition

Repositioning a legacy mass brand for China’s prestige-seeking consumer.

Move Olay upmarket in China to win over younger, prestige-oriented consumers, building credibility in prestige skincare without losing the brand’s mass distribution base.

The challenge

Elevating a legacy giant: navigating market fragmentation and building prestige credibility for next-generation consumers.

Olay faced an urgent need to reconnect with younger, prestige-oriented consumers in China. Premiumisation had to happen at the product level rather than only in communication, and it had to happen across the portfolio.

Anti-ageing and body care were where it showed most. Both were losing share as the market fragmented, and neither had changed its product in years. Delivering this repositioning required managing a complex stakeholder ecosystem, in-depth multi-city consumer research, and uncompromising creative craft.

Olay CellScience reason-to-believe key visual, China 2017

CellScience · reason-to-believe · China 2017

The approach

From upstream consumer insights to category-defining big ideas and high-craft execution.

The two categories required distinct strategic narratives under one coherent premium tone.

CellScience: answering the prestige question directly

First-tier consumers were already trying prestige products and judging them on visible results, and the science gave a reason: skin energy drops sharply in the thirties as Origin Cells go dormant and stop renewing, accelerated by external stressors. The idea, decode the language of skin and trigger youthful Origin Cells, gave a mass brand a prestige-level reason to believe.

Yabuli: moving the category, not the product

Yabuli answered a different question. Body wash had lost momentum with younger consumers because the category was still being sold as hygiene, while body care in China had already become an extension of facial skincare, judged on the same terms. Repositioning body wash as the entry point to body care, awakening youth in body skin cells, sensorial rather than functional, moved the category rather than the product.

The method

Guided the agency machine from multi-city focus groups and concept testing to the creation of defining big ideas and launch toolkits: hero key visuals, films and cross-channel assets.

Olay CellScience beauty key visual, China launch 2017

CellScience · beauty key visual · China 2017

Olay Yabuli beauty key visual, China launch 2018

Yabuli · beauty key visual · China 2018

The outcome

First in category, and a design system that outlived the campaign.

#1
Tmall Double 11 Beauty Ranking (2018)

Jumped from #5 in 2017 to #1 beauty brand in China, validating the multi-category premiumisation turnaround.

Adopted
Permanent brand design system

Core visual frameworks and narrative assets were integrated into Olay’s long-term brand equity and rolled out nationwide.

Business impact & commercial turnaround

Both launches served as the strategic core of the multi-year premiumisation programme that reversed brand fatigue and turned Olay around in China. By combining rigorous upstream consumer insights with elevated creative execution, the campaign successfully converted prestige-seeking, next-generation consumers, propelling Olay from fifth in Tmall’s Double 11 beauty ranking in 2017 to the #1 spot in 2018.

Brand equity & long-term scalability

Beyond instant commercial success, the project delivered lasting institutional value. The visual tone, scientific storytelling architecture and hero key visuals produced under my management were adopted into Olay’s permanent design guidelines, continuing to roll out across subsequent product lines and multi-quarter national marketing waves.

Planning a premium launch or repositioning a legacy brand?
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Contact

Let’s start the conversation.

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Write to me → or write directly to nina@xuconseil.fr
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BasedParis (CET)
Experience10+ years · Beauty & Health · Global GTM
Works withPremium Beauty & Health Brands
AvailabilityAccepting Q3/Q4 strategic advisory & launch projects
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