We Create: Ashley Xu and Digitas Help Hanahana Beauty’s Products Shine With Reels
We Create aims to inspire and reinvigorate Instagram’s core creative audience while supporting small businesses. This year, the program brought together creative agencies and creators to develop valuable content for women-owned small businesses using Instagram’s fastest-growing format: Reels.
In a series of behind-the-scenes videos, Instagram documented the creative process of the We Create teams from conception to final asset. Earlier this month, we shared the collaboration between artist Elise Swopes (@swopes), Bodega at @wiedenkennedy and the Indigenous-owned business @onquata.paddle, as well as how multidisciplinary artist Laci Jordan (@solacilike) and social enterprise @theworthy.coteamed up. Now, see how videographer Ashley Xu (@ashhasacamera), @digitas.na and clean skincare brand @hanahana_beauty made magic together.
Hanahana Beauty founder and CEO Abena Boamah-Acheampong joined forces with creative agency Digitas and videographer and artist Ashley Xu to develop a brand campaign for the consciously clean beauty brand by leveraging Instagram Reels.
“Being able to work with an agency and work with different influencers with We Create—it allows us to be intentional about scaling into different communities,” says Abena.
To kick off the project, Ashley met with Darian Smith, creative strategist at Digitas North America, to learn more about Hanahana’s story. Darian and his team put together a creator brief for Ashley highlighting the process behind Hanahana’s products, which begins with sourcing their main ingredient (shea butter) from the Katariga Women's Shea Cooperative, a group that employs and creates economic opportunities for women in Ghana.
Ashley immediately began ideating on video strategies like closeups and quick transitions that would make those important details—the story behind Hanahana, its emphasis on textures and caring for others—stand out in Reels. Watch it all come together in the video below and see the final result of Ashley's Hanahana Reels campaign:
“I’m definitely excited to delve more into close-ups, which is not something that I usually do,” says Ashley. “I just wanted to incorporate all 3 [of Hanahana’s] products, and it’s just an introduction to how they work in combination with one another.”
Along the way, the Digitas team provided strategic and creative guidance for Ashley's Reels assets. Check out their advice as they dig into 3 business benefits of including Reels in a campaign or creative strategy:
Looking for more inspiration on how businesses and creators can collaborate to drive growth and brand creativity? Watch the first and second We Create episodes.