Sunsilk tops new marketing battlefield

MANILA, Philippines - Today the most successful campaign is no longer measured solely by the number of television commercials or towering billboards a brand has.

The industry is shifting towards the digital playing field, following the patterns of an audience that is increasingly plugged into the virtual world.

One such brand that has successfully transitioned from traditional to digital is the Unilever brand Sunsilk. Its Hair Experts page on Facebook recently reached a whopping 1,000,000 fans.

Barely 16 months old, the page is already among the top ranked Philippine brands on the bassively popular social networking site. There are 25,535,120 Filipinos on Facebook.

Half this number log on to their accounts every day. Each Facebook user typically checks his or her account at least three times a day and stay logged on for an average of 77 minutes. The numbers indicate that with the enormity of users, the typical marketer will be more than tempted to get a slice of the big pie of interactive audience.

Sunsilk was able to harness the huge potential of the site and establish an active user-based community on Facebook. The site continues to be a success as it crosses the one million barrier without the intention of slowing down. On its launch, Sunsilk began with a video reach block ad unit on user’s pages. This alone gathered 18,000 likes within 24 hours.

Since then, the brand has made use of the networking site’s social ad platform to drive traffic to its page. To make the page more exciting and interactive, the brand developed applications for the Hair Experts Page. One such application allowed members to share their photos online. It also allows them to vote for their favorite pictures. With this, the page was flocked by more people who wanted to be a part of the interactive Sunsilk community.