Even if you aren’t a beauty product fanatic, you’ve almost definitely heard of Sol de Janeiro. The popular skin and body care product company continues to trend for its tropical-scented, hydrating formulas that claim to “capture the beauty of Brazil in a jar”. Its signature bright yellow containers are all over TikTok pages and in YouTube get-ready-with-me-videos, and for good reason.
When Her Campus at Cal Poly was given the opportunity to partner with such a well-known brand, we were so excited to try the products and to brainstorm our promotional campaign. Sol de Janeiro generously gifted us 300 of their sample products to pass out, so we went to work coming up with ideas on how to best present the products to our community. Director of PR Valerie Medina shares: “planning and strategizing how we wanted to advertise and market the event was imperative for its success. We planned a photo shoot with the products and club members, hung up flyers, and teased the collaboration with fun graphics days in advance!”
Instagram manager Bhavi Dhillon adds, “preparing for this event was super fun. The visuals team and executives spent a lot of time planning the best way we could showcase the Sol de Janeiro products, while having a fun event as a club, which is why we decided to have a photo shoot for our campaign to promote the event.”
Ultimately, we decided to host a booth on campus on Valentine’s Day. The group created a ring toss and Valentine’s trivia for people passing by Dexter Lawn to participate in exchange for their choice of a mini sample of the Brazilian Bum Bum Cream or the Brazilian Joia Milky Leave-In Conditioner. The week leading up to the event, our social media team curated our feed with beach-y photoshoot pictures and sneak peeks into our giveaway products. All the promotional work evidently paid off, with writer Kaitlyn Conmy reflecting that “before the booth was even set up there was a line of girls wanting to participate and engage.”
Within the first two hours, we had completely run out of our 300 products. The famous Bum Bum Cream was a huge hit, and our members have already noticed positive changes from using the Leave-In Conditioner; Editor and Director of Membership Emily Middleton comments that it “makes [her] hair smell amazing!”
The event and sponsorship were huge hits. We had so much fun developing the campaign, bonding over beach photoshoots and graphic design, and connecting with our campus community through our product booth! Thank you again to Sol de Janeiro for the sponsorship opportunity!