Here’s how skincare brand E45 stood up for the trans community

Despite its 70 years of comforting skin, this unassuming brand was being overlooked in favor of new players in the category, who had been steadily building brand leadership over time. We needed to wake this sleeping giant. In 2023, we began revitalizing E45, giving it a fresh identity and a new purpose, ‘to make your skin feel comfortable, so you can feel more comfortable in your skin’, and then we set out to find those in society who feel most uncomfortable in their skin. Looking for cases to power our marketing, where E45 could provide genuine relief, alleviating not just physical discomfort, but emotional discomfort too.

During our research, we found an issue consistently surfaced online within trans communities, piquing our interest when one Trans Redditor posted: "for the first 20 years of my life I barely ever felt comfortable in my own skin, if even at all.”

We wanted to learn more, sensitively and respectfully, so working closely with one of our Trans and Non-Binary creative directors, and partnering with the Diversity Standards Collective, we conduct interviews with trans people to understand how the journey of transitioning impacts your skin. Through these conversations, we uncovered unique and often overlooked dermatological challenges that someone faces when undergoing gender affirmation treatment. These range from HRT-induced dryness, irritation from shaving, waxing, electrolysis, tucking and shapewear, to surgery scars. One participant said she felt her skin was “under constant harassment” while another said electrolysis made her face “look like it's been attacked by a hive of bees”.

This gave us powerful clarity: no one feels more uncomfortable in their skin than someone assigned a gender they don’t identify with. And those navigating gender affirmation treatment faced unique and overlooked dermatological challenges, which could be treated with E45.

And so, E45, the brand sitting in the back of your bathroom cabinet in its humble little pot, just quietly doing its thing, would stand up for the trans community.

Execution

Set in the privacy of trans women’s bathrooms – a space where they could truly be themselves and where E45 naturally lives – our script provided intimate and light-hearted glimpses into the daily skincare routines of trans women. It revealed the changes that transitioning can have on the way skin looks and feels, and the length trans women often have to go through to feel comfortable enough in their skin to step into the outside world every day.

Peppered throughout the spot were easter eggs that would bring quiet joy to trans viewers who so rarely see their community represented on TV (google ‘winky shark toy’). The insights gathered from trans people, combined with the lived experiences of our Creative Director (who is themselves trans) was essential in achieving this.

In July 2023, we submitted our script to Channel 4’s Diversity in Advertising Award (with commitment from E45’s clients that, win or lose, we would make it). But it won. The film aired on May 17th (The International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia) across Broadcast and VOD and ran until the end of June, bolstered by social content of trans influencers talking about their journeys to feeling comfortable in their skin.

As important as the output, was the process we followed to put inclusion and safeguarding at the heart of our approach - this went beyond the usual ‘tried-and-tested’ safeguarding guidelines (e.g. pronouns, unisex bathrooms etc), to an extensive scenario planning process designed to digitally safeguard the wellbeing of our trans talent online from trolling and negative comments.

But we weren’t done.

Determined to make an impact for Trans people beyond authentic and uplifting representation in advertising, we partnered with Trans healthcare professionals, including Dr. Kamilla Kamaruddin, to publish a systematic review on the impact of transitioning on skin in the International Journal of Transgender Health (you can check it out here). We also commissioned a research piece as part of their ‘Mirror on the Industry’ series of reports that explored the lack of trans representation within the advertising industry and gave tips on how brands can represent this community in their creative in sensitive, authentic and impactful ways.

Our campaign not only authentically represented trans experiences and was developed with trans people’s insight and direction woven into our processes, but is making real change in trans healthcare, positioning E45 as a brand that truly understands and champions skin comfort for everybody.

Results

The campaign has already shown strong results, adding to the growing pool of evidence that inclusive advertising (not just in execution, but in insight, strategy and process) can yield results that create positive business impact. E45 has seen a significant increase in key brand health metrics, including attention, perceptions and purchase consideration.

Highlights include:

1. Regaining Consumer Attention: E45 emerged as a modern, inclusive brand, getting noticed by our customers with a year-on-year increase in Ad Awareness (+77%) and Attention (+28%), making E45 the brand with the largest Advertising Awareness increase in the UK for June 2024, according to YouGov. (Source: YouGov Brand Index, 17/05 - 16/07 ‘23)
2. Increased Relevance: The campaign resonated strongly with younger audiences who the brand had been struggling to recruit, becoming part of conversations again with an increase in Positive Buzz (+64%) and Positive Reputation (+23%) among 18-34 year olds. (Source: YouGov Brand Index, 17/05 - 16/07 ‘23)
3. Business Growth: The campaign positively impacted E45's bottom line. We saw a surge in Purchase Intent across all audiences (+28%). Sales on Amazon, a platform favoured by younger consumers, increased during the campaign’s six-week period by +46%. As the campaign is still in its early stages, we anticipate further growth in these metrics in the coming months. (Source: YouGov Brand Index, 17/05 - 16/07 ‘23 vs ‘24 & Amazon Data 17/05/24 - 30/06/24 (campaign period).
4. Improved Trans Visibility: The campaign drove representation in an world where less than 1% of advertising features trans individuals. Winning Channel 4's Diversity in Advertising Award amplified our message of inclusivity nationally and sparking conversations. Despite prevalent hostile trans narratives, online sentiment was overwhelmingly positive, with "joy" representing 73% of campaign-related conversations. Trans community members praised the ad as 'thoughtful, empathetic, straightforward, and trans positive’. (Source: Pulsar)
5. Research into Transgender Dermatological Care: Our research into the most reported skin changes during different stages of transition journeys has been published in the International Journal of Transgender Health and covered in world and national Healthcare Professionals trans health conferences.

Protecting space at the heart of our process for trans voices was vital – from the trans members of our team to the trans people who shared their intimate insights on how they use E45 with us, to the trans members of our employee community groups who shared their hopes and fears for the future of trans representation in the media.

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