POND'S - 1HQ

What was the challenge?

With too many product re-positionings and pack relaunches, POND'S had begun to lose its premium perception and expert appeal.

The brand was also struggling to keep up with rapidly changing skincare trends that were moving towards scientific innovation and luxury formulas. Brand share was slowly dwindling and POND’S needed a facelift to re-establish itself in this highly competitive market.

2023’s pack relaunch was designed to prompt a re-appraisal of POND’S in Southeast Asia and beyond, making the offering more premium and paving the way to the ambitious target of becoming a $1 billion brand by 2026.

What was our thinking?

To create an iconic visual brand identity and outstanding packaging:

1HQ drew inspiration from a century of timeless beauty and blended it with pioneering science to uncover the essence of POND’S, in reimagined visual assets: the iconic Pink, the Tulip and Skincare Science, seasoned with simplicity.

From the outset, we knew we had to tick three boxes:

Relevant – Make POND’S more relevant to consumers seeking premium and effective beauty solutions.
Credible – Achieve credibility by re-introducing the highly respected POND’S Skin Institute into packaging communication.
Distinctive – By combining sophistication and expert skin science cues, we needed to set POND’S apart from the competition.

To deliver on all three fronts, we needed cut-through thinking. In short, we came up with a “Miracle”. Firmly rooted in the brand’s DNA, the notion of “the Bright Miracle” was the golden thread that connected everything we did.

What did we do?

Concept generation
Creative strategy
Packaging design
Key visuals
New product development
Nomenclature
Regional rollout

To shape a brand for the future, we first went back to the past for inspiration. The iconic tulip, reborn and reimagined, took centre stage in the visual identity as a symbol of elegance.

Then, more than 50 shades of pink were carefully considered before we found the one that would provide our brand’s heartbeat, while the “Bright Miracle” line was our guiding light throughout.

Trademarked ingredients, NIASORCINOL™ and HEXYL-RETINOL™, were lauded for their skin-enhancing and replenishing qualities, while the re-introduction of the POND’S Skin Institute boldly reasserted our credentials as a skincare science leader.

In a Perception Research Services (PRS) analysis, our new design outshone key competitor, Garnier, on ‘Beauty Superiority’. It also triumphed on appeal, expertise, premium perception and spot reduction.

What did we achieve?

Our design refresh for Unilever’s legacy beauty brand has elevated perceptions and set a precedent in the world of skincare.

The rollout of the new product line and campaign began in October 2023 in Indonesia and reviews have been glowing.

Post-launch, consumer research has highlighted that our work has hit exactly the right note. Consumers cited the packaging as luxurious and elegant, and the colour as “visually arresting” with verbatims such as “POND’S Bright Miracle’s vibe is for rich people” and “The colour palette looks good: light pink and metallic together looks sophisticated.”

What next? The new visual identity will cascade through Southeast Asia and the rest of the world during 2024 via a series of captivating videos, inspiring social media content and arresting in-store designs.

What did our client think?

“Creative Ingenuity. Agility. Professionalism. These are the things that immediately come to mind when I think about my working relationship with 1HQ. From Day 1, they have been an excellent partner in crafting design concepts that come from even the toughest of briefs. They have a way of pushing the boundaries of design all the while staying true to the consumer insight. They manage to weave synergy out of complexity and deliver assets in a timely manner, which is difficult in working with such a complex brand with multiple nuances.”

Andrea Parungao
Global Assistant Brand Manager, POND'S, Unilever