BAND-AID® dispatches ‘Glambulance’ for fashion emergencies

Anyone can play dress up—even Johnson & Johnson’s BAND-AID®.

Fashion designer Cynthia Rowley designed a limited edition, dress-up BAND-AID® that was sold exclusively at Cynthia Rowley stores, cynthiarowley.com and the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

The challenge for PR agency RF|Binder was how to drum up media and consumer interest in the designer BAND-AID® concept without new product designs.

Its resulting publicity campaign that tied BAND-AID® to fashion emergencies—a timely theme that would resonate with fashion-forward female consumers—won top honors in the Best Publicity Campaign category in the 2012 PR Daily Awards.

Here are some of the campaign’s creative elements:

• BAND-AID® “Glambulance” to the rescue. The vehicle visited fashionable locations during Fashion’s Night Out and Fashion Week for maximum awareness and visibility. A variety of stylish fixes and services were offered to consumers, including makeovers, an onsite seamstress and fashionable first-aid supplies.
• Fashion Malfunction Story Contest. A nationwide contest was created and activated on BAND-AID® Brand’s new Facebook page during the days leading up to Fashion Week. The page hosted the Fashion Malfunction Story Contest, where fans were given the opportunity to enter stories detailing their fashion mishaps for the chance to win a $2,500 grand prize—a styling session and shopping spree at Cynthia Rowley.
• Fashion lounge sponsorships. To maximize visibility with media, fashion and celebrity influencers at Fashion Week, the brand served as a sponsor of celebrity stylist Robert Verdi’s Fashion Week Retreat and Lounge where it showcased the product and other elements of the campaign.

The agency also recruited 25 influential beauty and fashion bloggers to serve as campaign ambassadors. These bloggers were tasked with posting and tweeting about the product launch and promoting the campaign and Facebook contest.

The results? Media coverage for the mass retail launch of BAND-AID® by Cynthia Rowley yielded more than 80 million media impressions in a three-week period. The supporting programs achieved the following:

• Partnership with 25 influential blogger ambassadors generated nearly 1 million online impressions.
• More than 135,000 newsfeed impressions on Facebook and 236 tweets mentioned the Glambulance within four days of the program launch.
• The Glambulance attracted approximately 95,000 pedestrians during two days of Fashion Week.