On Sunday, Cécred, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s 14-month-old hair-care baby, debuted in all of Ulta Beauty’s doors — more than 1,400 across the country. And on Monday, the brand launched its first brand campaign, dubbed “A Deeper Understanding of Hair.” It partnered with advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy to bring its vision to life.
In a series of video assets shot documentary-style, the campaign tells the stories of six women and their emotional journeys with their hair, including highs and lows. A written “Brand Manifesto” that is part of the campaign states, “There isn’t a relationship in the world like the one you have with your hair. And we want to uplift you — All versions of you — Through every phase. That relationship is cécred.”
The six women are models, but the stories they tell in the videos are their true stories. “We made sure the models we picked were people who resonated with the entire team when we met with them, and that all of us could see ourselves in each of their individual hair stories,” said Grace Ray, Cécred’s CEO. The campaign features three Black women, two white women and one Asian woman. Their stories are unscripted, she said.
“This campaign really captures the essence of what Cécred is as a brand and what we are building,” said Tina Knowles, AKA Ms. Tina, who is the brand’s vice chairwoman. “One of my favorite parts of being a stylist is the stories you hear from your clients in the chair. These stories are real, emotional and sometimes even hilarious. We wanted to create a campaign that highlights this realness, while being relatable so that our customers can see themselves in it.”
“It all comes down to hair being more than just beautiful ornamentation,” said Funmi Adejobi, copywriter at Wieden+Kennedy. “It’s emotional, personal, cultural, funny, tragic, triumphant — all of that and more. The story of our hair is the story of our lives. And no matter what kind of hair you have or what journey you’ve been on with it, there’s a story there. … Cécred understands the relationship with your hair — scientifically, culturally, emotionally — and makes products rooted in that deep understanding.”
The timing of the campaign made sense, given that, thanks to Ulta Beauty, the brand will now have a vastly expanded reach. “Now that we are going into our nationwide launch, we knew it was important for people to see from the jump what our existing community already knows, which is that we’re not just a celebrity hair brand,” Ray said.
Ray pointed to the brand’s dual key tenets: its investment in proprietary technology and its efficacious formulas: “[We have] technology that is patent-pending, which has been clinically proven to transform the health of the hair. We have the science and technology to back our performance claims, and then we see the reactions from our community [about] how their hair grows longer, stronger and healthier with our products.” She noted that the brand has received over 18,000 5-star reviews. At the same time, she said, the brand has prioritized the emotional connection people have with their hair.
“It’s the marriage of performance and emotional connection that makes this brand so compelling in the market and with consumers,” Ray said.
The campaign will be amplified through paid media and a six-screen digital billboard in Times Square, Ray said. As for social, the brand will promote the campaign across Meta and YouTube. It has 467,000 Instagram followers. Beyoncé has 312 million. “Cécred had the highest engagement rate on social for any hair-care-only brand in 2024, with 5.4 million engagements and around a 34% share,” Ray said, citing Dash Hudson data.
As for Beyoncé, Ray said she “worked with our team to provide creative and strategic direction for the campaign.” Furthermore, “Beyoncé and Miss Tina [Knowles, Beyonce’s mom] personified the campaign’s tagline, which is, ‘A deeper understanding of hair,’ because of our history with the Headliner salon [in Houston, Texas — it was once owned by Tina Knowles] and their deep knowledge of hair culture,” Ray said. Viewers of the campaign will hear Beyoncé’s voice at the end of every video, too: “Is she Cécred? I think she’s Cécred,” she coos in her iconic, instantly recognizable speaking voice.
Ray declined to comment on the brand’s growth in its first year, but a brand rep shared that Cécred has won 39 awards across its Foundation Collection, with almost every one of its products gaining recognition. It also has 16 patents pending for tools, packaging and tech. They also shared that the brand has donated $500,000 to the stylist community to provide scholarships, training and business grants alongside Knowles-Carter’s BeyGood foundation.
