‘Get Ready with Me(tal)’: Why Heavy Makeup Songs Are the Right Medium for This Finnish Supermarket

As a fan of brands with unreadable logos, my ears perk up whenever I hear a chugging of metal riffage as part of my professional worklife. So when I saw that TBWA\Helsinki had worked with Finnish supermarket K-Citymarket to shake up the makeup marketing space through a collection of heavy metal songs, my attention was piqued.

Finnish people are metalheads too. The Nordic nation has more metal bands per capita than anywhere on earth. So serving up makeup tutorials in the form of tracks featuring leading female vocalists from Finnish metal acts is a strangely mainstream approach to supermarket advertising.

At the core of the campaign are four unique heavy metal songs, each representing their own beauty routine and metal sub genre, from glam and hyperpop to power and even death metal. The songs feature strong female lead singers who put their unique fingerprints on each song and work as a soundtrack for uniquely Finnish #GetReadyWithMetal beauty tutorials.

LBB’s Alex Reeves went behind the screams with chief creative officer Alex Pineda.

LBB> What sparked the idea to marry Finland’s metal heritage with beauty tutorials, and how did you validate that insight before briefing the team?

Alex> It is not a secret that the advertising in the makeup and beauty categories has contributed to build stereotypical portraits of women; reinforced by social media, where influencers and creators spread content that may fall into promoting homogenised and unrealistic beauty standards.

K-Citymarket, the biggest supermarket chain in Finland, wanted to launch its new beauty and skincare portfolio. iSince gender equality is a goal at the brand’s core, we really wanted to move away from conventional beauty stereotypes. Finland is a country that tops global rankings in gender equality, currently ranked as the third most equal country in the world and the second best country to be a woman; the country also holds important gender equality milestones such as the first country to allow women to vote, and the country with the highest amount of women in high political positions with an impressive 49%. Finnish women are well-known in Europe for their tenacity, commitment, and perseverance. These and many more equality and diversity achievements made it not only impossible but necessary for K-Citymarket to find a fresh and empowering way to launch the beauty catalogue, and the answer was found in Finland’s rich music history itself.

Besides gender equality, there is something else in which Finland tops global rankings: the country with the biggest number of heavy metal bands per capita in the world. We worked on and validated several insights and possible territories to execute the campaign, however when we approached heavy metal music, we knew we had landed on something powerful.

LBB> How did you go about selecting the four metal subgenres and matching them to specific beauty rituals? What was your strategic rationale?

Alex> Heavy metal is a very rich music genre, with many subgenres and styles which have evolved through decades. We wanted to explore many subgenres, so all songs could sound and feel different, while being part of the same umbrella concept.

The client and our strategy team defined the most relevant beauty routines by tracking product sales data, and then, with the help of musicians and singers, we defined four subgenres:
- Power metal for eyes makeup
- Glam Metal for skin care and cleansing
- Death Metal for glow up makeup
- Hyperpop for haircare

For our campaign, we emphasise tying the lyrics with the metal subgenre that best represents the beauty routine, so the music and the theme would feel like a perfect match.

LBB> Can you walk us through the process of sourcing and collaborating with the four vocalists? How did you ensure authenticity both musically and visually?

Alex> After finalising the creative process, pitching the idea to the client and getting it approved, we started the pre-production phase. One of our creative objectives was to treat this campaign not as regular advertising, but as a real EP recording, so we went through all the steps musicians go to create and launch an album. First, we partnered with Leo Niemi, music supervisor, and Tuomas Ahva, sound designer, who were the project leads from the music production side. Their expertise in music production helped us not only by supervising the entire process and crafting the final songs but assisted us in finding the right talent for the recording sessions. Our main goal was to find rising female singers in both the local and the European local scene, and of course, getting them interested in participating on the project. The final lineup is starred by Sara Strömmer (from SheReign), Katariina Sorsa and Tuuli Paju (from IKINÄ) and Susanna Alexandra (from CyanKicks).

Besides the singers we counted with the participation of producers and sound engineers, plus guitar, keyboard, bass players and drummers, and it’s worth mentioning that AI was NOT used in the making of the songs, neither in the music nor in the songwriting. Everything was played, sung and recorded by real musicians, in the classic studio way.

For the visuals, we wanted to keep it as close as possible to the impactful heavy metal style of classic illustrated cover art. The main identity and visual language of the project was made by Camilo Alzate and Tommo Killström, art directors and metal lovers. I personally double up as comic book artist, and as a metalhead, I jumped in myself by illustrating covers and posters for the full album and the four singles. The biggest challenge: to utilise the vibrant K-Citymarket brand colour palette, although I think they ended up looking pretty awesome.

LBB> Why did you choose Sonic Pump Studios for production, and how did that environment shape the final sound and energy of the songs?

Alex> After selecting and locking the musicians and more importantly, our female lead singers, we moved to the production phase. Leo and Tuomas were decisive and confident about it, and one name resonated above all: Sonic Pump Studios, perhaps the most legendary metal studio in Finland, and one of the most important in Europe – recording studio of metal giants such as Stratovarious, Sonata Arctica and Amorphis. We called in a legend: Nino Laurenne, head producer of Sonic Pump, multiple gold and platinum records winner, who loved the idea since day one. As you may guess, heavy metal is not a music genre that is commonly used in traditional advertising campaigns, so in the project Nino found an opportunity, a new and fresh approach to involve heavy metal into something unique. Recording in such a studio gave us not only the sound quality, but the right energy for the music. Pure metal!

LBB> What were the biggest creative challenges in writing metal tracks that also double as step-by-step makeup tutorials?

Alex> The song writing process was a big challenge. Even though heavy metal and makeup have been together since the beginning and seem to be a right fit with each other, it proved very hard to turn beauty routines into song lyrics, especially with the energy and power of heavy metal music. Our agency copywriters, Anni Nissi and Emma Kanninen took the challenge and put together the first drafts, in both English and Finnish.

Besides being step-by-step makeup tutorials, the goal was to give each song also an individual personality and tell a story besides the beauty routine. We are specialists in advertising, not musicians, so we were very open in turning to the music team to twist and craft the lyrics, and they did it masterfully. Producers and songwriters Joonas Parkkonen, Aake Lämsä and Niila Perkkiö, with the support of our singers, Nino and music producer Tony Hentilä, crafted the final words.

LBB> How did you integrate non-traditional PR elements – like custom roadie amp boxes – into your launch strategy, and what impact did they have on engagement?

Alex> Even before starting production, we knew that perhaps besides the songs, the most important part of the campaign would be a strong PR push. Led by Paula Sonne, head of PR and earned media and the Eleven PR team, we built our PR strategy covering three fronts: first, beauty and makeup media; second, music and entertainment media; and third, the creative industry media.

Spoiler alert: it does not end here! Our PR strategy will continue over the summer, with on-ground activations in supermarkets across Finland, and we are also partnering with important metal festivals, so we can bring together heavy metal and skincare to stages and scenarios around the country.

LBB> Which metrics or KPIs did you set to measure both the campaign’s cultural resonance and its commercial effectiveness for K-Citymarket?

Alex> We set two groups of KPIs, which have been responding very well in the first weeks of the campaign. Of course, the most important goal is market share, since K-Citymarket is launching a new beauty portfolio, communicating that now everyone can find makeup and skincare products from the finest brands in our supermarkets, products which not long ago were reserved only for makeup stores. Then, we are also keeping an eye on the cultural and social engagement of the general public, which in Finland, cradle of heavy metal, has been extremely positive.

LBB> How did you balance the brand’s business objectives with the need to respect and elevate metal culture? Were there any tough trade-offs?

Alex> Surprisingly, once the idea was approved, the process went very smoothly (compared to other campaigns!). It was a seven-month production process, and along all steps in the way, we counted with the incredible support from the client side. Mette Åstrom, K-Citymarket marketing manager, always pushed us forward, and didn’t waver while encouraging us to go braver and bolder in the heavy metal sound.

LBB> What role did platform-specific format considerations (Spotify, YouTube, k-ruoka.fi) play in shaping the creative execution?

Alex> The final step after launching the campaign and crafting the songs, was the distribution. It’s in my opinion, one of the hardest things to do in the field, not only in music but in many other art fields. The music industry has changed drastically in recent years, and to successfully spread the songs we knew that the digital platforms were the way to go. We partnered with Spotify, YouTube Music and Tidal, and we also posted the songs and the lyrics films (AKA karaoke videos) on social media. Another important thing worth mentioning is that we wanted the songs to be also used as soundtracks on beauty videos. By partnering with Instagram, we managed to get the album successfully submitted to the official Instagram Global Music Library, and now, all songs can be embedded into stories and posts inside Instagram.

LBB> Looking back, what’s the key piece of advice you’d give a marketer trying to create similarly disruptive, culturally anchored work in another category?

Alex> TBWA’s disruption always pushed us forward to find and fight against conventions. In this specific case, the advice is the same: avoid conventions, be disruptive, find a new territory. Our main idea was strategically justified from the creative, planning, and media fronts. Creatively, ‘Heavy Makeup’ delivered a disruptive, fresh and different message than all the competitors in the makeup and beauty category, something never seen (or better heard!) before. Since the idea taps into strong insights in both strategic marketing and gender equality, the strategic planning behind the work helped the brand to achieve a new positioning, which, besides the brand’s marketing objectives, delivered an impactful message to promote female empowerment and fight against the established beauty category stereotypes. Finally, by strategically selecting music as the main media, the initiative delivered a message that connects with people by appealing to a music genre relevant in Finnish culture, positioning K-Citymarket as a challenger in the category in terms not only of new products, but also communication and connection with its target audience.