Clotrimazole (Canesten)

The Objective

In the tropical Philippines, the conditions are perfect for fungal infections. Whether you are young or old, fungal infections do not discriminate. But Clotrimazole (Canesten ®) has a ready-made solution — its popular antifungal cream. Clotrimazole (Canesten ®) Antifungal Cream fights a broad range of skin and foot fungal infections like athlete's foot, ringworm, jock itch or white spots.

Clotrimazole (Canesten ®) wanted to promote the cream across the Philippines to help millions of potential customers keep these pesky infections at bay. To accomplish this, it decided to focus its attention on TikTok’s energetic community, as well as the platform’s various branded solutions in order to generate buzz and awareness.

The Solution

Clotrimazole (Canesten ®) ran a broad Branded Hashtag Challenge campaign from July 21 to 26, targeting a wide pool of people in the Philippines. With such a small window, the brand aimed to spread the word quickly, because when it comes to fungal infections, the faster you take care of it, the better. This is where Clotrimazole (Canesten ®) took advantage of TikTok’s impressive stable of creators to turbocharge its content.

In order to attract users to the #GoodbyeFungiChallenge, popular online personalities such as Yanyan De Jesus, Zendee and Criselda Alvarez created viral dance videos which were served as TopView and Brand Premium In-Feed Ads. TopView ads appear at the top of users’ feeds upon opening the app, while Brand Premium In-Feed Ads are strategically placed among the first 130 videos a user sees. The creative took the form of an instructional video that taught users the dance choreography for the challenge, while users were also encouraged to come up with their own creative moves.

To take their Hashtag Challenge up a notch, Clotrimazole (Canesten ®) also employed a Branded Effect—a grey filter with evil-looking fungi that gets wiped out by Clotrimazole's (Canesten ®) cream, resulting in a brighter filter decked in party emojis. The company also included branded music in their Hashtag Challenge videos. These playful features enhanced the party, driving ad recall and building positive brand affinity. Together with the creators’ videos, the user-generated content successfully invited more people to join the fun. This further increased exposure to Clotrimazole's (Canesten ®) Hashtag Challenge page during the campaign.

The Results

Clotrimazole's (Canesten ®) virtual dance party ended with a bang. Over a three-day period, the #GoodbyeFungiChallenge garnered a total of 59.4 million video views. Meanwhile, the official creators-led instructional videos eased the entry hurdle—users could pick up the moves and waltz in, regardless of their skills. This led to 97,594 video creations, while the Branded Effect came in swinging too by earning 109 million impressions across the campaign.

Fungal infections may not be pleasant, but sharing a solution in the form of a viral dance does the trick. Clotrimazole's (Canesten ®) willingness to shake it off and engage TikTok’s tight-knit community, who are always down to strut their stuff, proved to be a game changer.