As I briefly mentioned last week, I just got back from a week on the road at an agency summit event in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was a great chance to bounce the Marketing with Meaning concept off my colleagues there as well as gather a few examples of great work they are producing.

The most interesting case study that I had not heard before came from the Grey agency in Colombia on behalf of one of its clients, Pantene. For the launch of a new Pantene night treatment product, the team came up with an integrated and entertaining idea delivered on a shoestring budget. The agency recruited a national celebrity, actor Isabella Santo Domingo, and generated a juicy gossip story around “Who is Isabella sleeping with?”

Isabella fed the tabloids with teasers in interviews with the media, and a website was launched to announce that she would be announcing who (or what) she was sleeping with on a certain date. On the evening of the announcement, Colombian households were invited to see live video from her home at famososenvivo.com. Several male friends stopped by as Isabella filmed the action herself. Finally, she kicked out her friends, went into her bedroom, and announced that she was “sleeping with” the new Pantene night treatment formula.

Overall, it was a simple, cute, and entertaining way to build buzz around a new product launch. Much more than a traditional celebrity endorsement, Isabella’s involvement was innovative and played up her personality. Advertisers love to use a “rug pull” device in commercials—leading people in one direction before surprising them in the end. Here the device lasted more than 30 seconds, and engaged people in multiple media.

The teaser buildup and online experience resulted in 60,000 visits in only three weeks. The results were extremely strong for this product launch; the new product actually went out of stock early on, and Pantene reached its highest market share in Colombia since 2005.

So “salud” to the Grey/Pantene Colombia team for trying something different that added a little diversion to people’s lives while introducing them to an impressive new product.