How Closeup Activated Fans and KOLs to Drive a Trending Campaign
What if your audience didn’t just watch your campaign, but helped create it? With Bandersnatch, Closeup turned fans into co-creators of a music video, and Near brought this idea to life through a KOL strategy that sparked massive engagement, organic sharing, and global conversation.
*KOL = Key Opinion Leaders aka Influencers / Content Creators
Closeup: Confidence that brings people closer
Closeup is a global oral care brand known for its bold red gel, high-energy campaigns, and strong positioning around attraction and confidence. Targeting Gen Z and young adults, the brand champions self-expression, connection, and the courage to make the first move, making it a natural player in culturally driven, socially engaging campaigns.
How do you refresh a love team story that everyone already knows?
With DonBelle as long-time ambassadors, Closeup had already built strong awareness and emotional connection. But familiarity can plateau. The challenge was to evolve from passive “kilig” consumption into active participation: getting fans to engage, vote, and shape the story themselves.
The goal wasn’t simply visibility. It was involvement.
Near turned kilig into participation—and participation into performance
To move audiences from viewers to co-creators, Near designed the campaign as an experience. We built a strategy that blended KOL storytelling, fan culture, and platform behavior into one cohesive system.
To make this work, Near anchored the campaign on three core strategies:
1. Turning fans into co-creators through KOL-driven storytelling
We partnered with 34 KOLs across tiers and personas: from “First Movers” to “Barrier Breakers” to bring the Intense Red vs Cool Green narrative into everyday content. Instead of just promoting the campaign, creators encouraged audiences to vote and shape the music video, so engagement felt more like participation.
This approach worked because it mirrored how fans already behave. It tapped into fandom culture, where audiences enjoy contributing to the conversation. The result: strong engagement across platforms and organic fan content exceeding targets by 321%.
2. Using non-branded content to drive stronger engagement
One of the boldest strategic decisions was to remove visible branding during the teaser phase. Instead of pushing Closeup upfront, we focused on relatable, kilig-driven storytelling.
The results were clear.
According to the report, non-branded KOL videos significantly outperformed branded ones, achieving higher engagement and retention rates, reaching up to 23% retention vs. 8–14% for branded content .
By making content feel like a discovery rather than an ad, we increased watch time, relatability, and overall performance.
3. Amplifying fandom culture to drive organic virality
One of the boldest strategic decisions was to remove visible branding during the teaser phase. Instead of pushing Closeup upfront, we focused on relatable, kilig-driven storytelling.
The results were clear.
According to the report, non-branded KOL videos significantly outperformed branded ones, achieving higher engagement and retention rates, reaching up to 23% retention vs. 8–14% for branded content .
By making content feel like a discovery rather than an ad, we increased watch time, relatability, and overall performance.
Near’s takeaways on turning fandom into performance
Turn audiences into participants.
Campaigns perform differently when audiences feel involved. Giving fans control through voting, storytelling, or interaction, creates stronger emotional investment and higher engagement.
Make content feel discoverable, and not branded.
Non-branded content consistently outperformed traditional ads. When content blends naturally into a user’s feed, it earns attention instead of demanding it.
Treat fan communities as strategic partners.
Fan pages aren’t just amplifiers,they are also your culture drivers. When activated correctly, they can push campaigns into virality without additional media spend.
