‘Fight for your brand’: How skincare giant Galderma ‘doubled down’ on reaching consumers

Galderma is pivoting its heritage brands to win over a new generation of consumers in the ever-challenging skincare category.

The American-Swiss pharmaceutical company has a long history in the sector, but is perhaps best known for its Cetaphil hero brand – on the market since 1947. Global president of dermatological skincare, Tara Loftis, looks after the Cetaphil brand as well as Differin, Alastin and Benzac.

With over 20 years of experience in the category, Loftis is well-versed on the challenges of winning over a new generation of consumers and believes winning over Gen Z (and Gen Alpha for that matter) is a different task to what has come before.

“The biggest differentiating point between Gen Z and previous generations is their obsession with speaking authentically,” she tells Marketing Week while at Cannes Lions last month.

“Whereas previous generations you could deploy a conservative-minded campaign that would resonate across four different generations, that does not work with Gen Z. They want to be spoken to in their own voice and they don’t want to be spoken to by an ad that is clearly devised to win them over.”

The other challenge is where to find them. Loftis recalls how in the past you could get a brand to take out a placement on The Today Show in America and they’d call Sephora and other beauty retailers beforehand as they knew there would be a surge in interest in the product. But with the diversification of media channels, brands need to show up in more interesting and authentic ways to gain consumers’ attention.

I treat my marketing budget like it’s my own money. I’m comfortable being in a position where I might not have the world’s biggest marketing budget.

Tara Loftis, Galderma

“Gaming is one area we know they’re spending a lot of time in,” she says, noting it is an unlikely channel for a skincare company to show up in.

“Our partnership with Roblox and Twitch was a way to really learn about that space, because we know that over 80% of Gen Z and Gen Alpha struggle with acne, and so we could show up to the consumer in a genuine way that could help them.”

Loftis has also noticed younger generations are more likely to be won over by scientific facts and efficacy than those in the past. This was something that came through in a recent rebrand of Cetaphil, where the research was telling the team consumers wanted to hear more about the brand’s scientific credentials.

This was easy for Galderma to do as a “pure play” dermatology company with nearly 1,200 clinical peer-reviewed STEM publications on file.

“We have to evolve our brands,” she explains. “When I assessed all of the assets, I felt like it wasn’t evocative of a brand that was a dermatology company. I wanted to see numerical facts and figures, and results and almost intimidatingly smart science at the forefront of the advertising.”

Updating a brand for the modern age doesn’t have to mean abandoning the audience you found success with in the first place.

Loftis recalls how every step of the Cetaphil rebrand came with a consumer sense check to make sure it was going in the right direction, and even sense checks with its healthcare partners as well.

‘More beauty than bin liners’: Andrex on redesigning to reframe as a skincare brandWhat surprised her at the end of the process was that while brand consideration scores jumped among Gen Z and Gen Alpha, the rebrand tested most strongly with an older audience.

“As marketers, sometimes we think that more mature generations are averse to change. But the truth is that all generations want to gravitate to a product that is modern, fresh and of the moment while offering efficacious treatment,” she says.

The success of Cetaphil’s rebrand will inform the messaging of Galderma’s other brands as well.

“We are doubling down on our efficacy with the consumer, and not letting the consumer be swayed by advertising with brands that maybe don’t have that clinical and medical heritage,” Loftis adds.

Culture shock

The idea brands need to move at the speed of culture in order to keep up with modern trends and not feel outdated was spoken about extensively in Cannes. This isn’t necessarily an easy thing for larger businesses to do, however, with the additional layers of red tape and more decision-makers involved. Loftis, however, refutes the idea large businesses can’t be as nimble when tapping into culture as smaller ones.

Coming from Kendo Brands – part of luxury giant LVMH – she was comfortable working with brands that are not “advertising first”, but are instead “culture first” and need to be agile to capitalise on trends.

“Marketing teams at Kendo have a lot of fun, because they are absorbing and consuming culture every day and brainstorming every hour,” she says. “That is what I brought to Cetaphil.”

That commitment to moving quickly was immediately tested within weeks of starting in the role in January 2024. Loftis recalls how the team had an idea for a campaign tied to the Super Bowl, which was given the green light there and then. Within 48 hours they were casting for the spot, four days after the ad was shot and then 10 days later the creative debuted at the Super Bowl in a local spot in Dallas.

“What was interesting is that we got so much earned media from the Super Bowl campaign last year that it really broke every expectation and thought process around paid media versus earned media,” she says. “We knew that we needed to move in this direction.”

‘Bold disruptors with a kind heart’: Elf Beauty’s brand chief on its non-stop growthThe success of the campaign in 2024 meant similar success was expected in 2025, but Loftis was reluctant to start planning something too early.

“I don’t believe it works to concept something six months out. It’s very lazy and expected,” she says.

Loftis argues that if a business wants to move at the speed of culture it is vital senior leaders give the team the space they need to experiment and make mistakes.

“It’s OK to take a chance and not every chance that you take is going to pay off,” she adds.

Cetaphil eventually ran a campaign with rapper Lil Wayne that came together quickly in reaction to him being snubbed from performing at the event held in his hometown of New Orleans. The ad performed very well in terms of earned media and exceeded internal expectations for what the campaign could achieve.

“Brands are spending millions of dollars on Super Bowl executions,” says Loftis. “And if it’s working, that’s great, but I believe that every dollar counts. I treat my marketing budget like it’s my own money. I’m comfortable being in a position where I might not have the world’s biggest marketing budget.”

It’s not just about working within limitations, it’s also ensuring marketing showcases its successes to secure bigger budgets the next time around.

Loftis jokes how all sales teams love to “send out a recap”, but in the past decade she has become increasingly “surgical” about showing how she is hitting KPIs, bringing value to the business overall and “contributing to the top line”. The danger here is this can lead marketers down the performance funnel and neglect brand building efforts, but Loftis is keen to make sure this doesn’t happen.

“Any marketer that has spent a lot of time on the digital side, in particular, knows lower funnel marketing tends to produce the highest ROI,” she says. “But lower funnel mostly means your existing consumers and so you’re churning, but what happens when those consumers age up?”

Loftis believes it is key for any marketing team to focus on the “big picture” and make strategic decisions based on their “short-term and long-term bets” to find that balance.

“I’m passionate about brand building. Short-term, ROI, promo driven activity, that’s part of the game but, at the end of the day, we have to be the guardians of our brands and fight for our brands like our lives depend on it. That’s our equity out there,” she concludes.