Jergens Turns 125 With Joy Club Tour Built for Gen Z
Jergens marked 125 years with a six-city Joy Club Tour timed to Gen Z festivals, handing out up to 3,000 samples per stop and unveiling a new logo live in Santa Monica.
Updated
The brief
- The Jergens Joy Club Tour visited six cities — Orlando, Atlanta, Nashville, Wildwood, Chicago and Santa Monica — timed to events including CMA Fest, Lollapalooza and The Cheerleading Worlds.
- Jergens distributed 2,000 to 3,000 samples per stop through its Sample Shoppe, where attendees tested new collections and filled bags with full-size and mini bottles.
- Creators Mei Mei Vigliotta and Darcy McQueeny helped unveil Jergens' new logo in Santa Monica after a creator trip to Miami kicked off the campaign.
Jergens handed out 2,000 to 3,000 product samples at every stop of a six-city tour built to mark its 125th anniversary and pull Gen Z into a brand best known to their grandmothers.
The Jergens Joy Club Tour hit Orlando, FL; Atlanta; Nashville; Wildwood, NJ; Chicago; and Santa Monica, CA. Each stop was timed to activate around a nearby music festival, event or beauty community — CMA Fest, Barefoot Country Music Fest, Lollapalooza and The Cheerleading Worlds, where "there's a big sunless tanning culture," according to Stephanie Kimutis, associate director-core consumer care at Kao USA, which owns the brand.
"There's such a rich history there," Kimutis says of Jergens. "But we need today's younger consumers to come into the franchise, and that's what all of our new product development is centered around, too."
Creators first, consumers second
Before the tour launched, Jergens kicked off the campaign with a creator trip to Miami to seed conversation on social media.
"That's purposeful to really get these creators who can help us build the trust and share authentic experiences with the brand, and then we end with consumers because they want to be a part of that," Kimutis says. "As they've become our brand ambassadors, and you see them show up at more than just one event or one post, it is helping us build this long-term equity with them and the younger consumer."
Creators Mei Mei Vigliotta and Darcy McQueeny joined several tour stops to meet attendees and helped unveil the new logo in California as the tour finale. The Jergens team heard that some fans drove hours to meet the ambassadors in person.
Swag without the lines
At each stop, the Joy Club crew handed scratch-off tickets to attendees waiting in line. Each ticket uncovered one of Jergens' "joyful" icons — a flamingo, a palm tree — that directed them to a station with the matching symbol.
There, guests could pull a prize from an ice cream cooler, play a Plinko-style game called "The Joy Drop," or putt a golf ball on an oversized letter J. The ticket system funneled attendees to specific activity areas to prevent long waits and keep crowds moving. Participants left with tattoos, stickers, plush flamingos and golf balls, and took photos with Jergens' bottle-shaped mascot.
Every stop also featured a branded snack or beverage. On the Santa Monica Pier, Jergens served cotton candy stamped with its name in three flavors: Cherry Softness, Pink Vanilla Cloud and Tropical Escape.
"We like to talk about the joy of Jergens really in the five senses, and so taste was a big component," Kimutis says. "It was a lot of research into trends and what would be cool enough that consumers would be willing to wait in line for it."
The Sample Shoppe anchored the footprint. Attendees smelled new scents, tested new collections and filled a bag with full-size and mini bottles — the source of those 2,000 to 3,000 samples per stop.
A logo reveal with fans in the front row
The final stop carried the campaign's biggest moment: the reveal of the new logo. Jergens covered every branded element within the footprint with stickers, some reading "Wait for it…"
Vigliotta joined Kimutis in front of the Joy Club entrance arch and dramatically pulled the sticker off. Members of the brand team uncovered the new logo across the space at the same time, with the brand's next generation of consumers holding a front-row seat.
The staging signals where Kao USA is taking the franchise next: new product development and brand identity built squarely around younger buyers, with the creators recruited on the Miami trip carrying the ambassador relationships beyond a single event or post.
Based on chiefmarketer.com
Filed under experiential-marketing, brand-activation, gen-z-marketing, influencer-marketing, jergens
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