Building a brand in a digital world is becoming more the norm than an outlier strategy in creating buzz for new innovations.

To promote a recent razor innovation, Procter & Gamble’s Braun brand built a purely digital launch campaign in Germany.

“The team started by developing a digital architecture based on how people make purchases today, taking into consideration search, content, ratings, reviews and social media—without traditional paid media at launch,” said Rick Hasselback, Vice President of Marketing for Cover Girl at WWD’s Digital Summit: Beauty Edition, in February.

Ultimately, when in-store displays entered stores the displays mirrored the digital campaign’s creative, and included hi-tech demos and a seemless connect to mobile. “This is opposite of how we work today where in-store displays are locked in months before digital is even considered,” Rick said. The campaign successfully drove commerce online and in-store, with sales exceeding expectations by eight fold.

“Even with digital at the center of the campaign they didn’t do digital marketing. In my view it was just good brand building,” Rick said.

Another example of using the right tools at the right time to make people think differently about a routine act, such as hair coloring, was the regional digital promotion P&G’s Wella division utilized for its Koleston color brand in Mexico.

For the campaign, Koleston tapped Mexican superstar Paulina Rubio to create an authentic story. To build steam on social media, Koleston posted an online confessional from Paulina about how she wanted to transform herself from a blonde to a redhead using Koleston, connecting with women on a fundamental level with the aim that women would see Koleston in a more personal light.

The online confessional fueled traditional media and online efforts, while at the same time the Koleston Facebook page received more than 100,000 shares. A press conference revealing Paulina’s new red ‘do catapulted the already viral campaign, which then moved to Twitter, where it realized 10 million followers.

“The story exploded. Every talk show and entertainment show in Mexico covered it, and Koleston color was a central part of the story,” Rick said. The confessional generated three million views in a few weeks, and five months later it’s gotten more than 15 million views.

“This flipped the traditional model on its head. Instead of building the campaign around an ad, we built it around digital to create a pop culture phenomenon, and then created traditional ad assets,” Rick said.