38% lower cost per purchase from four-week skin diaries

Dewbank makes a low-strength retinol serum for people whose skin reacts to almost everything. Its ads looked lovely: soft light, slow pours, a model with no visible pores. They had also stopped working. Cost per purchase had climbed for five months running, and the comments kept asking the same question: will this wreck my face?

The reviews pointed the same way. Nearly every five-star review opened with a bad experience on some other retinol, and the ads had never admitted that anyone has one.

We went looking for creators with sensitive skin and a bad retinol story of their own. Dewbank shipped serum early, which gave six creators four weeks of real use before filming, and each kept a short diary on camera, bad days included. Nobody was asked to hide a flare-up.

• Hooks built on the fear: “My last retinol took my face off, so why am I trying another?”
• Week-by-week close-ups in daylight, with no makeup
• Three hooks per creator from our video studio, plus subtitles and 4:5 cuts

The diaries beat every studio ad in the account in the first test window. The winner came from a creator who admitted to a dry patch in week two, a detail nobody at Dewbank would have scripted. Cost per purchase fell 38% over the next two months, and the comments moved from “will this burn?” to “which week did you see a change?”

Dewbank now briefs a new diary round every quarter, and the studio ads have been retired from paid.