This Vendetta went on for years

For women who get their hair coloured in salons, a major irritant was that the colour faded too quickly. And Hell hath no fury like a woman whose colour has been scorned.

In 2007, Matrix launched a new line of products called Shade Memory that would prolong the colour of salon-coloured hair.

We tore our hair out to come up with a campaign that would really cut it with salon owners, hairstylists (especially at trade shows) and their clients.

What do women want most?

When something irritates them… revenge! From this starting point the whole notion of “Color Vendetta” evolved. We created an atmosphere and a Website, which recreated a hair salon, where women could wreak their revenge on common irritants in their lives, like the ex-lover, the macho boss, the “Mother-in-Flaw” – by tossing various objects at them, including a hair dryer, or a purse! And rack up big points by doing so!

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To empower women even more, we borrowed imagery and language from the most powerful iconic women in the world: female superheroes from the world of comics and graphic novels. This allowed us to present the brand in a very cutting-edge way, since both types of publications are extremely popular and online and in the “real” world.

The buzz was hummin’

Buzz kits were developed for salon owners and most importantly, stylists themselves, to make them brand ambassadors for the product line. And promotional SWAT teams buzzed the Allied Beauty Association trade shows in Montreal and Toronto.

Colour this campaign successful

Sales objectives were exceeded by 35% in the first quarter and the product was completely sold out in its first quarter. The campaign won silver and bronze awards at the Canadian Marketing Awards in 2007. And Matrix worldwide was so impressed by the campaign that it was adopted in whole by Matrix UK, running there until early 2010.