Unsurprisingly, pulling this off wasn’t easy. Uncommon Creative Studio, the agency that concocted this creative idea, partnered with prop stylists CAD Industries and Decimated Designs to gather both real and synthetic hair, much of which came from K18’s partner stylists’ salons, before hand-styling, sewing, and constructing the ball. This engaged the brand’s professional community in an activation meant to draw shoppers into Sephora.
“We wanted to make sure that all of the hair that we were using felt representative of the population of New York,” Cara Johnson, Creative Director at Uncommon, told BeautyMatter. Using various colors, styles, and textures, the creative team wanted the hairball to look “as gnarly and crazy as a real ball of hair would look if it had been slowly collecting hair and rolling around the city for God knows how long.”
The next step was getting the City of New York and the mayor’s office to approve the permits needed for an object as big as a car to roll along the sidewalks of Manhattan.
Which begs the question: How on earth was this monstrous thing even rolling?
A five-person production crew of “flaggers,” as Johnson referred to them, rolled and steered the Tumblehair across the city, ensuring it wouldn’t casually fall straight into the East River. The ball hit highly-trafficked areas including Midtown, the West Village, Chinatown, and the Seaport before arriving at the Meatpacking District. Here, the Longevity Lab offered consumers complimentary scalp analyses, product demonstrations, educational sessions, and customized scalp gua shas for those who purchased the serum.
Johnson credited K18 for being “very savvy, very brave, very down to make noise.” It’s not every day that brands are willing to take a leap of faith and approve unbranded stunts.
But that’s precisely what made the Tumblehair work. At a moment when beauty brands are constantly activating, whether that’s handing out free products or collaborating with the hottest stars, this stunt went beyond simply generating buzz. It also allowed the brand to reach people far beyond the traditional beauty customer: everyday passersby and casual social users naturally wanted to take part in the conversation.
“At a moment when consumers are increasingly questioning what’s real versus digitally created, there’s something incredibly powerful about taking an absurd idea, physically building it, and putting it directly into culture,” said Mack.
Experiential marketing is having a moment, even specifically when it comes to faux hair. Living Proof recently took over Union Square with an oversized wall of hair to promote its newest dry shampoo, letting New Yorkers touch and feel the hair before mysterious hands reached through and delivered free samples.
But K18 took its stunt one step further: The hairball reached influencers. A select group received a sleek, silver reflective box that contained… their own personal mini Tumblehair. Surprise!
“Influencers are used to getting this beautiful package and opening it up and seeing all these amazing products and beautifully crafted gifts,” said Johnson. “We thought that they would be a little bit more shocked and intrigued by this miniature ball of hair that’s still gorgeously packaged.”
For brands like K18, it can be difficult to communicate their science-first formulations to the everyday consumer. Activations like this one allow the brand to get people to care about the science, too, and give a visual representation of why it matters.
“When the creative idea is rooted in a real product truth, education and entertainment don’t have to compete. You can deliver both at once,” said Mack.