Allergan targets filler-prone millennials with new Juvederm lip campaign

It’s all about the lips in Allergan’s latest Juvederm campaign. In its first consumer effort focused on lip treatments, Allergan looks to especially target millennials with a natural—but individual—choice to create the lips they want.

Why now? Because millennials have flipped the script when it comes to facial aesthetics. Traditionally, neurotoxins have been the gateway to injectables with the Gen X generation, who then move on to fillers like Juvederm, said Colleen McKenna, Allergan's vice president of marketing for facial aesthetics. However, today’s 30-somethings are just as likely to start with a filler as a neurotoxin like Botox, an Allergan sibling product and market leader. And for millennials, fillers mean lips.

“They are jumping into this category with lip treatments. It’s really an opportunity for us to talk about lips and how you can get the look you want that’s natural and authentic to you,” McKenna said.

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Featured in the new campaign are reality TV star Audrina Patridge along with a celebrity makeup artist Kelsey Deenihan, who will be doing media interviews and talking on social media about why they choose Juvederm for lips. The effort includes TV, with a custom version of the Juvederm It commercial already running, along with digital ads, social media and public relations.

In an additional campaign promotion, people can enter a contest online to win prizes, including a limited edition lipstick kit, which consists of three shades curated by Deenihan and created by SheSpoke custom makeup studio.

However, the focus on millennials doesn’t mean Gen X is completely left out. McKenna said the broader individual choice message applies to the older group as well who may, for instance, want a more youthful look for thinner lips. The Allergan campaign centers on both its Juvederm Ultra XC and Juvederm Volbella XC filler products.

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While Allergan and AbbVie are still working out the final details in their $63 billion merger, the two have already announced they will carve out a separate Allergan Aesthetics global subsidiary. Current Allergan products Juvederm, Botox, Kybella and CoolSculpting, along with other aesthetics will be housed in the new business when the deal closes, expected by the end of the first quarter.,

Carrie Strom, Allergan's current senior VP of U.S. medical aesthetics, will lead Allergan Aesthetics, as well as take a senior VP role at AbbVie.