"Be smashing everyday"

Our first creative exploration while working on rebrand was to speak to their irreverent challenger voice and get the name out there in a memorable way, using lipstick, mascara and cheek color, breaking with traditional beauty ads. (couldn't resist sharing these).

"It’s not nice to keep secrets."

Smashbox’s struggle to develop a consistent brand voice and look brought them to DDB. Before beginning creative development we did exhaustive research on their category and interviews with key stakeholders. The insight we uncovered was that Smashbox could position themselves as the one of the most experienced innovators in their industry by capitalizing on their rich Max Factor heritage and how they are dedicated to developing and testing cosmetics in both the laboratory and their own photo studio. The campaign wrapped around the line “it’s not nice to keep secrets” implying that they’ll share the beauty secrets other cosmetic companies won’t. The rebranding launched with a teaser campaign that told the world they were ready to give everyone true insider secrets that can’t be found anywhere else. A complete website redesign followed with groundbreaking content in addition to an extensive print campaign. In the end, it was a beautiful success.