Behind Clairol’s nostalgic partnership with Amazon Prime’s ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’

Clairol, a brand with roots in the 1950s, is pairing with a fictional band from the 1970s in a new Amazon Prime series, which is part of its strategy to revive the brand. Clairol is the latest brand to lean into the power of nostalgia to drive sales. 

The Wella Co. brand is launching a paid and organic digital and social campaign linked with “Daisy Jones & The Six,” which debuts today on the streaming platform. It’s a partly documentary-style treatment that follows the lives and loves and explosive breakup of the fictional band. 

Clairol products aren’t integrated into the show, which could be a plus for the brand given how others' integrations have gone. But the brand has incorporated the series and its characters into a campaign that aims to capture the look and feel of the show.

When Amazon reached out to Wella about the partnership, it made sense, said Lori Pantel, chief marketing officer of Wella North America. “At Clairol, we’re in the middle of re-establishing the brand back into culture, and it felt like a really nice opportunity from a credible, cultural moment,” she said.

“We’ve been able to incorporate the Daisy Jones likeness, which is really fun, and it’s a nod back to our heritage, which I think is really important,” Pantel said. “Few brands have a heritage like Clairol’s, so I’m a big fan of tapping into that heritage.”

The 70-year-old Clairol itself is like a band trying to stage a comeback. It was the first boxed at-home hair colorant sold in supermarkets in the 1950s, Pantel said. But today it’s the No. 3 brand of women’s hair color sold in stores, according to IRI, behind L’Oreal Paris and its L’Oreal USA sibling Garnier. Rivals such as hybrid salon-consumer direct startup Madison Reed have been taking market share too.

Clairol has had four owners in 22 years. Bristol-Myers Squibb sold it to Procter & Gamble Co. in 2001; P&G then divested it to Coty in 2015, which divested it again two years ago to a private equity group along with other brands in the Wella portfolio.

Despite all that, things are looking up. Clairol still trails L’Oreal and Garnier in women’s hair color, according to IRI data for the 52 weeks ended Jan. 29, but it picked up share, growing sales 4.2% in a segment that rose only 3.1%. Clairol is within striking distance of Garnier to become the No. 2 brand sold in IRI-tracked stores.

The campaign with “Daisy Jones & The Six” lets Clairol pair characters and imagery from the show with Clairol products and packaging. The campaign will also include a program where influencers show women how to get the look for each of the four key characters from the show featured in the campaign. Communications agency Praytell and Publicis Groupe media shop Zenith are handling the effort.

Nostalgia for long-established beauty products that are still relevant today has led to viral success on TikTok in recent years, such as with Estee Lauder’s Clinique last year. Pantel is hoping Clairol can get a similar boost.

Having a partnership with an original streaming series outside the actual show has benefits, including more control over how things play out. Clairol rival L’Oreal Paris, along with several other brands, appeared to be intentionally integrated into the first season of the series “Upload” on Amazon Prime in 2020—but in odd or unflattering ways. For example, one episode featured L’Oreal Paris gift bags given away as door prizes to attendees of a funeral. L’Oreal declined to comment at the time.

“I think for us, if you’re fitting a brand into a story that doesn’t make sense, consumers will notice it, and I don’t think it drives equity for either the brand or the show,” Pantel said. “I’m hoping the way we’ve done it and the way Amazon has allowed us to partner will still serve both sides.”

The show may be about a 45-year-old band, but the campaign around “Daisy & The Six” is aimed more at younger women using hair color for self-expression than older women using it to cover grey, Pantel said.