TJ WALKER - THE HABIT INFLUENCER - Personal Development | LIVE STREAM

From the studios of Media Training Worldwide in New York, this is Inside Communications and I'm your host, Mike Baco. What's it like to work on a campaign so successful that your client almost runs out of product?

Almost.

Today we go inside the campaign for the super successful brand Shellac on Inside communications with Red PR's Julia Labaton coming up next. Thanks for joining us today on Inside Communications. When you're launching a product like Shellac, how important is it to get influencers and trade publication writers, editor on board with something like this?

I think it's critical to get the influencers first. That was the key to our whole strategy, was to start with the innovators who influence the. And influence and influence to create a domino effect. So we had a very targeted laser like strategy to look at the innovators in each category of our target audiences. We wanted who are the most influential media, who are the most influential nail professionals who influence the industry and who might work on celebrities so that we can get influential celebrity fans who will then influence the media and who are influential consumers in different communities around the country and around the world.

How important are bloggers and people that write about fashion, that don't necessarily write for Allure or any of those major women's magazines, but write a blog that people frequent because they trust what they have to say?

Some of the bloggers are so influential. I mean, the blog sphere, as we all know, is expanding by the minute. And some of the bloggers, they were some of our key targets in the very beginning. In particular a blog called All Lacquered up that writes only about nail polish and everything, nails, and has a huge following of fans, an incredible credibility. When the writer covers a product, people are listening, they believe her reviews and we immediately see results.

In terms of seeing results and having people try that product, we're talking about global events, we're talking about events in New York, Los Angeles, internationally. How important is it to actually have the editors, the people that are going to be writing about it, actually going in and getting the treatments done.

You can't launch a product like Shellac without having people try it. Our strategy was to get the innovators trying it through a whole series of events starting two months before it launched in the marketplace through to now, a year and a half later. We are trying to, you know, shellack as many women as possible and even some men are trying it. You have to try it to believe it. And you know, once you shellack, you don't go back.

And so many people have tried it. That there was almost too much demand for the actual product. It outstripped by 14 times what the initial estimation was that people were going to be using it. Was that a crisis communication moment in a way where something can get too popular that there's not enough supply for it?

It was. Mike. It was incredible. Working on the launch of Shellac has been like working on the launch of the iPad. It launched into the marketplace in May and by July, C and D, which is a global company, they had sold out of a year's worth of global supply within several months because of, in large part because of the media coverage. We had the New York Times, the Today show twice. We had it on the homepage of Yahoo, which shut down their website. And it caused such an incredible demand that nail professionals were running out to get it. And it sold out fast, even with the productions, knowing that it was going to be a big success, even with those projections, it. It had a runaway success. And then we did have, we did have a little bit of a. We did go into crisis mode and we really took advantage of social media and CND's network of nail professionals around the world. So we were monitoring what was being said on Facebook and in different chat rooms, you know, 24 7, and responding right away. We had the CEO and the President of C and D calling people directly after they posted.

So it wasn't just the anonymous nameless face calling someone up or randomly tweeting them. You actually had the heavy hitters coming in to show that this was a priority for them.

We did. We had the co founder of C and D, who's very well known in the industry and on TV and quoted a lot calling up saying, I saw what you wrote on Facebook and I'm sorry you're so upset. We're glad you love the product and you know, we're trying our best to get it to you as fast as we can. And it really made a difference.

There certainly is a love of the product. Is there any danger in it becoming almost too popular that nail salons, have you gotten any feedback from them in terms of saying, we don't like the fact that customers are only going to be coming back to us every three weeks instead of every week or it's going to last too long? Could the product be too good in a way?

Actually, the response has been the reverse. Salons C and D has been getting feedback from salon owners saying, thank you so much. My business has skyrocketed because of Shellac. I'm able to see, you know, three times the number of clients that I was before and I charge more. So for the salon, it's a business driver for the woman who's going in to get a service, it's a huge convenience and in the end a money saver because you don't have to go back to the salon every week. You can go back every two or three weeks. You don't have to worry about it in between. So you save that time and you save the money. Money. And so we've had salons, actually a salon here in New York not far from here. The woman said to me, she's, my rent's gone up so high. I was thinking of going out of business. But thanks to Shellac, my business is now booming and I'm not closing my doors.

So business was booming for Shellac for these nail salons. How about post launch now? What are some of the steps that are going to be taken to continue this ball rolling, to continue to get the word out to women and, and to men? As you mentioned, we'll get back to the men in a little bit and see and see what a market that is for them. But how about post launch in terms of continuing this momentum?

We are, as we were just talking about, we just did a flash mob in New York City during Fashion Week. We've been trying to ensure that anyone who hasn't tried it yet is getting the opportunity to try it. We've got a mobile manicure van traveling around the city now traveling to other cities. And there are new colors launching every six months. Training is going. C and D has now instituted a salon certification program so that if a person goes into a salon, they know they're getting the real deal. There's a lot of now copycats saying there. It's almost become like a verb or a noun like Q tip or Kleenex is synonymous with a certain type of product. Now people are thinking that sometimes that they're getting a shellac manicure and getting a gel manicure, which is very difficult.

Different.

So there's a big education process now to make sure you know what the consumer knows what to look for. And the salon, the salons that are offering it properly are Shellac certified.

And how important is it to have that shellac certification? Some salons have the actual sticker that they have shellac at that salon. Is there going to be a social media campaign? Is there going to be media outreach to inform individuals that watch this interview, that watch the Today show or any other magazine that to say watch what you get? It might not Be the real thing. Almost akin to going down to Chinatown and getting a fake Louis Vuitton bag.

It's true. There is. We are in the process of that media initiative right now in terms of education clarification and differentiating. I mean, when Shellac first came out, it was the first in the marketplace of a new category, a hybrid category, a power polish, which didn't exist before. People knew polish and people knew gels, but they didn't. This didn't. This technology is completely new. So there's definitely a learning curve of educating people about what to look for and what the differences are. And that's we're using social media and traditional media now to get that.

Let's go inside some of that media coverage. And in terms of introducing people to this new product, virtually every media hit that I saw preparing for this had the reporter had the host rummaging through their bag right after banging their hand on a desk to actually show what a great product it is, how durable it is right after the fact. For this product, for any product. Anyone watching this in the PR field, how important is it to actually get people to road test your product, to actually show it in use?

I think you can't launch a product like this without doing that. Otherwise it's just words and, and it's not credible. So our mission was to say to reporters, road test this. Take the 14 day challenge. See how your, you know, polish wears or wear polish on one hand and Shellac power polish on the other hand and show us what it looks like in 14 days. And we had reporters all across the country take that challenge. And it worked. It got rave reviews. I mean, it's a product that stands up to what it does, which is definitely a PR person's. Getting people to try it was critical. We started out with the New York Times. We went to them three months before we launched and said to the reporter, look, we've got something that's really going to make a difference in women's lives. Do you want to try it? She road tested it and the first article came out and that was the domino effect. You know, the New York Times is the ultimate news media source. From that, we had the Today show road test it actually twice. They did two segments on it. And then Yahoo, a reporter for Yahoo, road tested it and a very, very important nail polish blogger that has a lot of credibility within the media road tested it. And from there, those key traditional social and broadcast media outlets really set the course for, for local news and print broadcast. Print, sorry, and local broadcast Stations road testing it themselves to see if it stood up to the test.

It stood up to the test certainly for women making it so popular. You mentioned men just a minute ago. Is that a secondary market that more and more people that men are getting this service? Is there different techniques that you use to introduce it to them or is it just their wives and girlfriends saying, hey, you know what, this is great for me. You're getting it too.

You know, I mentioned men because we did a shellac manicure van in New York last week during Fashion Week and we had a number of shellac manicure bars during Fashion Night Out. And at every event I saw men sitting at the manicure bar getting shellac. And I was rather surprised. It's, you know, it's not a major market for shellac, but there are a lot of men who get manicures they love. You know, it's like going to get a shave and a facial and a manicure. I mean, it does keep your hands looking groomed and nice. You don't have to have the high shine if you don't like, but it will definitely. We also find actually guitar players like it.

Oh, certainly, yeah. What lessons, wrapping up, what lessons did you learn from this that you could take into other campaigns in terms of just the launch techniques, the post launch, the dealing with that crisis, communications, using social media, Are those lessons that you could take into future campaigns and future clients?

Yes, I think there are two main lessons. One is the idea of innovation diffusion. I mean, you need to diffuse, it's really the core philosophy of public relations, diffuse the message through the media. But who are the most innovative and influential media and audiences that you need to influence first? If you get to those key audiences first, it's going to help do the rest of your job. For example, we went to not just influential media, but influential nail professionals who work with celebrities. From that, we had Rihanna and Katy Perry and JLo all become known fans of shellac, which then got us into People magazine and a number of other media outlets. So choosing who your innovators are first to diffuse the message is important and we really saw that theory come to life vividly with this launch. And secondly, a lesson that you can never take for granted is the Internet has no boundaries. When CND did a training in the Netherlands for sure, and the timing was different than the launch in the United States, a blogger in the Netherlands mentioned it long before our media strategy was going into effect. So we needed to react immediately to make sure that it wasn't, you know, going to impair this very well crafted strategy that we had put together. And it was actually a nail polished blogger who we have a good relationship with so with who pointed it out to us. So never take for granted your media strategy being domestic versus international. You have to think without boundaries.

Wonderful advice and thanks for going inside communications with us today.

Thanks Mike.