CLIENT

Sunsilk (Unilever Malaysia)

 

Challenge

Sunsilk, a long-standing player in Malaysia’s haircare industry, was seeing a decline in relevance among Malay Gen Z females aged 16-24 – a segment that drives more than 50% of its sales growth. With market share in the post-wash category was slipping, it became critical for Sunsilk to reconnect with this core consumer base.

But reaching this generation is no easy task. The challenge was further intensified by tight constraints – we had just 3 weeks to launch a fully produced campaign, all while working within a limited budget.

Insights from Kantar Millward Brown’s ad reaction showed that Gen Zs disengages from ads longer than 10 seconds, favouring short-form, humorous and entertaining content instead. With their short attention span and an instinct to skip, scroll, and swipe past hard-selling messages, capturing their attention requires a different approach.

For Sunsilk, the challenge was clear: how to win the attention of an ad-averse generation – while still keeping the functional benefits of its post-wash products front of mind?

 

Solution

To truly connect with this audience, Sunsilk needed to meet them within the content they already love.

Leveraging data from Google Insights, we discovered that Female Malay Gen Zs thrive on highly relatable and entertaining content, with 62% showing strong preference for drama.

So, we flipped traditional advertising on its head—instead of creating ads from scratch, we hijacked dramatic moments from trending Malay dramas Gen Zs are already hooked on and repackaged them as social-first, snackable video, embedding Sunsilk’s promise within: your hair remains flawless no matter the situation (Rambut Tetap Boom!).

🪄 Dramatic Moments Hijack

We handpicked the most dramatic and humorous scenes from Astro’s top-trending Malay dramas featuring Gen Zs favourites – Anna Jobling, Tracie Sinidol, Nad Zainal, Janna Nick – and reimagined them through Sunsilk’s lens of confidence and self-expression.

From tears and heartbreaks to epic breakdowns, every Rambut Tetap Boom! moment captured the emotional highs of these iconic scenes while reinforcing Sunsilk’s core promise: no matter what drama life throws at you, your hair stays flawless.

Each moment was transformed into 15-second, social first capsules designed to spark engagement and encourage sharing. The capsules were deployed across Astro’s ecosystem – including Astro Ria, Gempak and ERA – as well we social platforms where Malay Gen Z audiences are most active.

🪄 #RambutTetapBoom Drama Awards

To amplify engagement, we introduced the #RambutTetapBoom Drama Awards in Malaysia’s leading pop-culture chart shows, Gempak Most Wanted.

Fans voted for their favourite dramatic moments and rallied behind their favourite celebrities on Gempak website, sparking a natural association between Sunsilk and the stars.

The campaign culminated in a live-streamed awards showcase, with Anna Jobling crowned as the fan-favourite winner. Her appearance brought natural star power to the moment, amplifying Sunsilk’s brand promise while delivering the effect of a celebrity endorsement that was authentic, unforced and emotionally resonant.

Results

By hijacking iconic drama moments and turning them into shareable storytelling, we successfully captured Gen Zs attention – generating over 10 million views total and delivering a double-digit uplift in sales.

Reach & Engagement

  • Reached 5.35 million individuals and generated 4.17 million impressions across TV and digital.
  • Digital content drove 1.09 million video views and 441,762 engagements, reaching 40% of the target audience.
  • Branded capsules alone delivered 1.19 million impressions with a strong 7.1% engagement rate.

Live Award Show & Audience Interaction:

  • 344,765 fan votes and 18,450 pageviews recorded via the Gempak platform.
  • The live-streamed award show finale reached 1.36 million viewers on TV and over 1 million on digital, amplifying Sunsilk’s presence across channels.