Merz Aesthetics has extended its starry marketing strategy, signing up Salma Hayek Pinault as the first global brand ambassador for its noninvasive skin-lifting device.
Seeking to loosen the stranglehold AbbVie’s Botox has on the anti-wrinkle market, Merz has in recent years persuaded a series of stars including Joe Jonas, Christina Aguilera and Demi Lovato to get behind its rival drug Xeomin.
Merz added Ultherapy, a device that uses ultrasound to tighten facial skin, to its portfolio by acquiring Ulthera for up to $600 million in 2014 and launched the latest version of the technology last year. Making actress, director and producer Hayek Pinault, who first made her name in the 1990s in movies such as “Desperado,” global brand ambassador for Ultherapy Prime puts star wattage behind a device launch that is now underway in regions around the world.
Lexi Stern, chief marketing officer at Merz, outlined why the company chose to bring Hayek Pinault on board for the rollout.
“It really allows us to expand our awareness and connect with new audiences who are exploring these noninvasive lifting treatments,” Stern said. “We know that this segment is on the rise. Now is the right time [to work with a brand ambassador]. We’ve launched, we’re now globally expanded, and it’s our next phase for growth.”
Merz has made Hayek Pinault the focus of a plan that will span paid and print media, out-of-home ads, influencer collaborations and more. The goal is to “bring Salma to life and bring this campaign to life,” Stern said.
“We needed to find somebody who was a believer in the treatment, but also embodies confidence and authenticity,” she said. “If you look at Salma and how she’s approached the aging process, she keeps her gray in her hair. She’s almost 60 years old and embraces that with such authenticity. She is somebody who embraces self-care and the aging journey in the most natural of ways.”
Stern said it was very important for Merz not to work with people who “aren’t embracing their natural aging process” as they grow older.
In Hayek Pinault, Merz found an ambassador who “wants to look like herself,” Stern said, and who ended up providing the company with language for the campaign: “She said, ’Energy is the future of beauty.’ And we were hook, line and sinker for that,” the exec recalled.