Pantene’s Marvel Play in China: Signal of “G-Localisation” Partnerships

The ad film – directed by Sweet Shop’s Simon Cracknell – shows the heroine starting her day in bleak monochromatic grey. However, a bright hue of red radiates her hair, and more vibrancy and colour is injected as she marches down the streets of Shanghai. Unsurprisingly, Pantene ‘s tagline is ‘Your hair is your ultimate superpower’.

While the flowing red locks of the ad’s heroine might be aesthetically more similar to DC’s Poison Ivy than Captain Marvel, it’s still a visually appealing collaboration.

With this latest collab – and supermarket shelf differentiation through on-pack idents of the Marvel movie – the brand’s strategy right now seems to be focussed on localising its global partnerships for China and across Asia, and cutting expenditure on purely local tie-ups. It’s also a classic example of a brand using some extremely heavyweight IP to drive differentiation and therefore sales. Not cheap, for sure, so the ROI will be closely monitored to see how this translates into profits.

Pantene’s supporting creative for print/digital media

Looking at Pantene’s ranking in the Sponsorship marketplace in Asia, ASN data shows that the Procter & Gamble (P&G) brand is the 4th highest spender in the FMCG/Haircare category (15.6% share), especially in China which captures 70% of its budgets: it has pumped US$14.2m into China since Q316.

However, their China spends have nosedived steeply by 7x from over US$11.3m in 2017 to a mere US$827k in 2018,  largely due to a spate of withdrawals including its two major deals with Hunan TV for Singer (~US$1.3m) and Divas Hit The Road (~US$4.5m). India is Pantene’s next biggest market, but it only gets 16% of its Sponsorship budgets.