ANATOMY OF A CAMPAIGN

Beauty and the Beast

Trust might be a small word but it has big implications – and never more so than in a time of crisis. For the National Hair & Beauty Federation, the power of clear communication has been at the heart of helping businesses get back to work after lockdown.

In this new, socially distanced world, the tactile nature and close proximity of the hair and beauty industry means it has bore the brunt of lockdown measures more than most. Not much chance of a cut-and-blow from two metres. For salons, barbers, nail and eyebrow bars across the UK, the impact of coronavirus has put businesses and livelihoods in serious jeopardy.

As the UK’s largest trade association for hairdressing, barbering and beauty salons, the National Hair & Beauty Federation (NHBF) represents thousands of small business owners. With the onset of lockdown in March 2020, and working alongside agency partner SLBPR, the NHBF sought to reaffirm its position as the leading voice for trusted, accurate information both to the media and the wider industry — helping businesses understand complex government guidance and, crucially, reopen their doors.

In economic terms, the implications of the hair and beauty industry’s closure shouldn’t be underestimated. Before lockdown, the industry, which is made up of some 43,000 businesses, had one of the biggest turnovers in the UK. The British Beauty Council estimates that in 2018 the beauty industry contributed a whopping £28.4 billion to UK GDP — that’s 1.3% of total GDP. And that’s before you consider the positives to people’s wellbeing that only a good haircut or facial can bring.

CONFUSION AND CONCERN

Rewind to March: in the run up to lockdown, huge concern was spreading among hair and beauty business owners as government guidance became increasingly confusing and salons faced closure.

“It was a moment in time that none of us is ever likely to forget,” says recently retired NHBF Chief Executive, Hilary Hall. “There was a total lack of clarity from government and the media rumour mill was making things even more stressful for our members.”

Seeking to cut through the hearsay and provide a beacon of trust for a fearful industry, the NHBF and SLBPR acted quickly to implement a crisis communications team and a strategy underpinned by a mantra of ‘no speculation’.

43,000 hair and beauty businesses in the UK

£28.4 billion contribution to UK GDP from the beauty industry over the year 2018

“One of the first things we did was to be rock solid that the information we put out was clear and factual, and if we didn’t have the answers we wouldn’t speculate,” says Hall. “In a crisis situation, people need clarity. By dealing only with the facts we were able to build trust with the industry, the media and with governments.”

A TRUSTED VOICE

For Sharon Brigden, SLBPR Managing Director, a crisis-led campaign was something relatively new for her team: “Although we’ve protected clients’ brand image for decades, crisis comms wasn’t an area of expertise for us. Our ‘no speculation’ strategy informed every decision, every press release, every social media post and even our own internal communication.”

With meetings often several times a day during government announcements, the crisis team were able to ensure rapid, yet qualified responses to government announcements. Messaging was agreed to and kept consistent across all social channels and to the media, helping to provide that all-important clarity.

“This was vital in us positioning the NHBF as the trusted voice of the industry,” says Brigden. “We were being inundated with media enquiries so we created a hierarchy with Hilary covering the big national interviews, others looking after regional broadcasts and others dealing with press quotes — it was a huge team effort.”

BACK TO WORK

The confidence and coherence of the response paved the way for the NHBF to work closely with the Cabinet Office and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, plus governments from each of the devolved nations, in establishing the guidelines that would allow hair and beauty businesses to return to work safely. Crucially, it also gave the NHBF a direct channel to lobby the government on all matters affecting the industry.

These close relationships established with media and government contacts meant that the NHBF and SLBPR were also approached by the Cabinet Office to help with a series of back to work videos for hairdressers and barbers. These have since been aired across government channels, including the Prime Minister’s own social feed.

Meanwhile, a campaign within a campaign was created to decipher evolving guidance for salon owners in each of the devolved nations — not an easy task when what works in London doesn’t work in Cardiff or Edinburgh. #DoItRight not only helped drive industry compliance, but underlined to consumers the measures being taken to make salons safe and give them the confidence to return.

POSITIVE RESPONSE

At a time of extraordinary upheaval, coverage of the NHBF was met with huge positivity. In June alone, as Boris Johnson announced some easing of lockdown, 831 pieces of media coverage with a reach of over nine billion strengthened the NHBF’s voice. And in the period 20 March to 20 July — from entering lockdown to the reopening of hair salons — nearly 2,000 pieces of online and print coverage, including The Telegraph, MailOnline and the Mirror Online, were secured.

With appearances on Newsnight, Sky News, BBC Breakfast, Bloomberg and numerous times across BBC News, ITV News and regional TV and radio broadcasts, Hilary Hall became the go-to talking head on issues facing the industry.

SOCIAL EXPLOSION

But it was social media where the stats really stand out. In an industry that is heavily socially influenced, the success of the campaign across Instagram and Facebook in particular has been impressive.

Across the same lockdown period, the NHBF Instagram following ballooned from an initial 5,000 followers to almost 68,000, while Facebook followers grew by nearly 55,000 compared to the same period in 2019. The NHBF website had over three million page views, compared to just over 200,000 in 2019. All of this led to a growth in NHBF membership by almost 20%.

NHBF Instagram followers grew from 5K–68K

831 pieces of media coverage secured in June alone, with a reach of over 9 billion

Tori Priestley, Marketing Director at the NHBF, says: “The social stats go to show how much the industry really needed clarification from concise, digestible statements that distilled reams of confusing government guidance.

“Social media can obviously help perpetuate rumours, but it also gave us an opportunity to respond with our key messages and take the mood of the industry back to government.”

THE POWER OF PR

For everyone involved, the importance of PR during a crisis couldn’t have been more evident. “I can’t stress enough how fundamental good communication has been during this crisis,” says Hall. “Getting our fact-based messages out, repeating them, using them across our own channels, on social or national media, has been absolutely key to our success.”

And for Brigden, learning that saying no is as important as saying yes has been one of the big takeaways: “Deciding that we would only comment on facts was tough at times — can you imagine how hard it was to turn down Newsnight and The Times because interviews were based on whatifs rather than facts?

“But this has always been about positioning the NHBF as the trusted voice of a crisis-hit industry — and sticking to our ‘no speculation’ strategy really paid off.”

CHANGING PERCEPTIONS

Although many salons and beauty businesses have been able to return to work since July, the subsequent rise in coronavirus cases and regional lockdowns means the future remains precarious. The relationships built with government and media will be vital in the coming months as the NHBF continue their support for the industry and lobby government to secure assistance and assurances.

“Hair and beauty can sometimes be regarded as a bit pink and fluffy,” say Hall. “So it’s been interesting to see the change in perception, particularly from politicians. I think governments had overlooked the importance of hair and beauty, not just to the economy, but to consumer wellbeing too.

“We’ve been able to change that perception and that’s a fantastic result for our industry.”