NEW YORK — Vavoom’s reputation as an Eighties hairstyling brand with incredible volumizing and hold properties has endured for almost 20 years: Its staunch results made it an easy sell by stylists, despite a lack of marketing, attention or hype from its parent, Matrix.
But the return of Hollywood glamour and voluminous hair has inspired the U.S.’s leading salon division to give Vavoom the star treatment, complete with an estimated $500,000 integrated marketing effort, according to industry sources, which includes sponsorship of several high-profile celebrity-attended events over the next six months. In addition, new packaging, formulations and products could push Vavoom’s first-year sales to $30 million, up 25 percent from last year, according to industry sources. Prices of products also will go up $1, and an ad campaign is in the works for 2006.
Vavoom’s red-carpet debut kicked off Aug. 28 when it teamed up with Us Weekly magazine to sponsor the Video Music Awards, hosted by Jessica Alba. On Sept. 7, the brand sponsored and styled hair for In Style magazine’s Clothes We Love show at the Time Warner Center in Manhattan. Today, Vavoom is in California to sponsor the “Desperate Housewives” DVD release party at the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica. And finally, on Sept. 22, the hair care brand will head back east to sponsor Cosmopolitan magazine’s 40th birthday bash, treating servers at the party to free styling sessions.
Deborah Marquardt, assistant vice president of communications at Matrix, which is owned by L’Oréal USA, said sending Vavoom down the red carpet instead of backstage at New York Fashion Week was deliberate, since she believes the brand is better positioned as one that’s tied to Hollywood glamour than to fashion.
Three new products include Extra-Full Freezing Spray ($13.95), Sheer Size Volumizing Gel ($12.95) and Size Me Up Finishing Spritz (12.95). Vavoom’s original products, Hold My Body Forming Gel, Smooth Me Smoothing Gel and Height of Glam Volumizing Foam and Freezing Spray, will remain in the collection. A fourth item, Take Me Higher Root Riser ($13.95), launches to salons in January. Vavoom’s new black-and-red packaging aims to be provocative, since “sexy hair is in,” Marquardt said, while formulas “take on a new interpretation of movement, without being sticky or tacky,” she added.