Vaseline's Transition Body Lotion, developed with Ogilvy Singapore, became the first clinically validated skincare product for transgender women, winning the
Vaseline Transition Body Lotion Redefines Inclusive Beauty in Southeast Asia
Vaseline's Transition Body Lotion is the world's first clinically validated skincare product formulated specifically for transgender women, developed by Unilever and Ogilvy Singapore and launched in Thailand and Singapore in 2024 to address the physiological skin changes that occur during gender transition.
The campaign begins with a product, not an advertisement. Recognising that transgender women face distinct and underserved skincare needs during their transition journey, Vaseline committed two years to research and co-development before releasing a single piece of communication. The product itself contains niacinamide and isoflavones — the latter innovated as a specific ingredient for this formulation — to support smoother, more natural skin changes during transitioning. The initiative was grounded in the principle of "nothing about us without us," meaning transgender women were active participants in every stage of research and development, as confirmed by Ogilvy's own documentation.
Vaseline chose to launch the Transition Body Lotion on International Transgender Day of Visibility, a deliberate scheduling decision that anchored the product's commercial introduction to a moment of cultural and community significance. In Thailand — a market Vaseline identified as home to one of the largest transgender populations globally — the product was distributed through 670 Watsons stores, according to reporting by warc.com and Archive Adfest. The campaign generated 158 million earned impressions in Thailand, as reported by ogilvy.com and warc.com, alongside 254 million paid impressions, per ogilvy.com. Louis Piereck, Senior Global Brand Director of Vaseline, described the genesis of the work: "It's rare for an agency to respond to a communication brief with a product idea. But when that idea aligns so perfectly with your brand's purpose, you have to act on it." The Clapboard Score for this campaign is 84 out of 100, reflecting its exceptional integration of product innovation, cultural insight, and measurable commercial performance.
Vaseline identified a genuine and clinically unaddressed gap in the beauty market. Transgender women undergoing hormone therapy experience significant changes in skin texture, elasticity, and sensitivity — changes for which no mainstream body lotion had been specifically formulated before the Transition Body Lotion's arrival in 2024.
Thailand provided the strategic focal point. The country holds one of the largest transgender populations globally, and Southeast Asia as a region represents a growing share of the global body lotion market, which is estimated at somewhere between fifteen and sixty billion US dollars depending on category definitions, according to giiresearch.com and dataintelo.com — a wide range that reflects how fragmented product classification remains across research methodologies. What is consistent across these sources is the direction: the market is expanding, driven by demand for sensitive-skin formulations, premiumisation, and multifunctional products, as noted by syndicatemarketresearch.com. Vaseline's move into a clinically validated niche product sits precisely at the intersection of these growth vectors.
The competitive context matters. In inclusive beauty, brands such as Dove — also a Unilever stablemate — and Fenty Beauty have established equity around representation and diversity. However, neither competitor had extended that equity into a product designed specifically for the physiological needs of transgender skin. Vaseline's decision to invest two years in R&D rather than produce a campaign that merely gestured at inclusivity gave the Transition Body Lotion a defensible and meaningful point of differentiation. The "nothing about us without us" co-creation model, cited by canneslions.com and Creative Salon in coverage of the Cannes Lions 2024 jury deliberations, was identified by jury president Cindy Gallop as a core reason the work demonstrated that driving social change is good business.
Ogilvy Singapore led the creative development of the Transition Body Lotion campaign, producing work that operated simultaneously as product launch, cultural statement, and brand communication across content, design, and direct media channels.
The creative approach is unusual in advertising: the campaign's primary artifact is not a film or an outdoor execution but the product itself. Two years of research and development produced a formulation that became the campaign's most compelling creative expression. David Dahan, Managing Director of WPP@Unilever, is credited as a key figure in the campaign's leadership structure, as reported by Little Black Book and bestmediainfo.com. The campaign's visual and communicative identity was built around the lived experiences of transgender women in Thailand and Singapore, with community members participating in both development and representation — a creative decision that gave the work an authenticity that manufactured diversity campaigns rarely achieve.
The launch execution was timed precisely to International Transgender Day of Visibility, amplifying organic reach through community resonance rather than relying solely on paid distribution. This strategic staging contributed to the 158 million earned impressions documented by ogilvy.com and warc.com — a figure that reflects genuine audience response rather than media spend alone. The Glass Lion jury at Cannes Lions 2024 reached a unanimous decision to award the Grand Prix, as confirmed by canneslions.com and creative.salon, with jury president Cindy Gallop specifically praising the two-year R&D effort, the co-creation methodology, product efficacy, and the quality of representation as reported by mmm-online.com and adobomagazine.com. The campaign's lineage also connects to Vaseline's earlier Ogilvy-linked work: the 2021 Vaseline Verified campaign, which tested more than six thousand organic social media posts and earned a Titanium Lion, according to ogilvy.com — establishing a consistent pattern of platform-native, purpose-driven creative strategy for the brand.
The Transition Body Lotion delivered measurable commercial and cultural impact across Thailand and Singapore. The product sold 71,600 units within six months of launch, as reported by The One Club and warc.com, and became Vaseline's second-largest premium-range variant, per the same sources. Purchase intent increased 725% above the standard benchmark, a figure that underscores how precisely the product addressed a felt and unmet consumer need.
Distribution reached 670 Watsons stores across Thailand, according to warc.com and archive.adfest.com, with the product selling out in numerous locations following launch. Total impressions reached 412 million when combining the 254 million paid impressions and 158 million earned impressions documented by ogilvy.com. Campaign Brief Asia reported that the work earned Singapore its first Cannes Lions Grand Prix, as of the June 2024 ceremony.
The awards record is substantial. The campaign won the Glass: The Lion for Change Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2024, in a category that received 165 entries, according to canneslions.com. The Glass Lion jury's decision was unanimous, as confirmed by creative.salon. The campaign also received a Public Relations Bronze at Cannes Lions 2024, a Best of Discipline award in IP and Product Design at the One Show 2025, and a Sustainable Development Goals Pencil Merit at the One Show 2025, according to oneclub.org. Selfstorming.com additionally documents the campaign's recognition across the broader award circuit. Structurally, the campaign's strength lies in the alignment between product innovation, community co-creation, and timed cultural activation — a combination that made commercial success and social impact mutually reinforcing rather than competing priorities.
Vaseline's Transition Body Lotion is the world's first clinically validated body lotion formulated specifically for transgender women. Developed over two years with active community co-creation, it contains niacinamide and isoflavones to support skin changes during gender transition. It launched in Thailand and Singapore on International Transgender Day of Visibility in 2024.
The campaign won the Glass: The Lion for Change Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2024. The jury's decision was unanimous, as confirmed by canneslions.com. Jury president Cindy Gallop stated the work proved that driving social change is good business. The category received 165 entries, according to canneslions.com, and the win marked Singapore's first Cannes Lions Grand Prix, per Campaign Brief Asia.
The product sold 71,600 units within six months, according to oneclub.org and warc.com. It sold out across numerous Watsons stores in Thailand and was distributed through 670 locations. Purchase intent rose 725% above the standard benchmark. It became Vaseline's second-largest premium-range variant, as reported by warc.com.
Ogilvy Singapore led the creative development of the Transition Body Lotion campaign on behalf of Vaseline and Unilever. The campaign was published in Singapore and Thailand in June 2024 and operated across content, design, and direct media channels. David Dahan, Managing Director of WPP@Unilever, is credited as a key leadership figure, per lbbonline.com.
The principle means transgender women participated directly in every stage of the product's research and development. Vaseline and Ogilvy Singapore used this co-creation model throughout the two-year R&D process rather than developing the product without community input. Cannes Lions jury president Cindy Gallop specifically cited this methodology as central to the Grand Prix decision, per creative.salon.
The campaign generated 158 million earned impressions in Thailand and 254 million paid impressions, according to ogilvy.com and warc.com. Combined, total impressions reached 412 million. The earned figure reflects organic community amplification following the launch on International Transgender Day of Visibility, demonstrating the campaign's cultural resonance beyond its paid media investment.
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