Social media is starting to look a lot like TV, and more brands are trading one-off posts for series people choose to watch. Most pay to get into someone else’s show, but OUAI made its own with CHOPPED, a three-part slasher comedy about bad hair starring Victoria Pedretti, with a trailer that became the brand’s best-performing social post ever. Amanda Martinez, VP of Brand Marketing at OUAI, shares where the idea came from and how a haircare horror series gets signed off.
Hey Amanda, for anyone who doesn’t already know you, who are you and what do you do at OUAI?
I’m Amanda Martinez, VP of Brand Marketing at OUAI. I lead the team responsible for how the brand shows up and connects with people, through our creative, social, community, partnerships, education and retail experiences.
A slasher about bad hair isn’t where most haircare brands would go… so where did CHOPPED start?
I’d been interested in the rise of scripted content on social media and saw an opportunity to create something people would choose to watch and come back for.
The concept was rooted in a simple truth: people tend to talk about hair as either good or bad. So if bad hair is the villain, damage is the thing to fear. There’s something funny about treating a bad haircut with the seriousness of a horror movie, especially because so many of us have lived through our own version of that horror.
Setting it in our office helped keep the plot in our world. Our community already knows the space from TikTok, so the office becomes a character in its own right, a familiar place that suddenly feels a little more sinister.
I need to know how a haircare slasher gets signed off. How did you get everyone on board?
I pitched it like a movie, not like a marketing campaign! A haircare slasher comedy is a little risky, and that originality was part of what excited us. The pitch helped stakeholders visualize how it would actually work: the world, the tone, the characters, the threat and, most importantly, why someone would want to watch.
The product is in it, but it never feels like an ad. How did you pull that off?
It sounds simple, but we started with what would make a good story. It was also a love letter to our community. The 911 joke about how to pronounce OUAI builds on a recurring bit on our social channels, we’re always poking fun at the ways people say our name while helping them get it right.
We wanted people to recognize a little of themselves in the characters, whether it’s their relationship with bleach or their refusal to put down the hot tools. Those familiar behaviors gave Bond Repair Balm a meaningful role in a story built around the problem it solves. Damage becomes the threat, and repair becomes part of the resolution.
Victoria Pedretti is the ultimate scream queen. What made her the one?
Victoria was our dream lead, a modern-day scream queen who brings real intensity and emotional credibility to the genre. She makes you believe the stakes, even when the threat is a terrible haircut. That ability to play it seriously is what makes the humor work. In the final TAG scene, she even suggested the line about “unexpected cuts” and “a significant opportunity for growth”, a clever way to get one last wink into the audience.
How are you measuring whether it worked?
Sometimes you have to give a big swing room to work. Views are one part of the picture. We’re also looking at shares and reposts because they show people choosing to pass the story along, alongside watch time, completion, and progression across episodes. We’re then tracking branded search, site traffic, and conversion and new-customer acquisition through the supporting campaign. We want to understand both the attention the series earns and what that attention leads to.
And finally, what’s one lesson you’d share with marketers wanting to try their first social show?
Don’t forget it’s still social. A longer format gives you more room to tell a story, but you still have to think about how people discover it, what makes them stop scrolling and what keeps them watching. And it doesn’t have to be scripted or highly produced. At its core, it needs to give people something to get invested in and a reason to keep watching.
Also, have fun! Give yourself room to play, follow an idea you’re excited about and trust your understanding of your community.
A huge thank you to Amanda and the OUAI team for being so generous with the behind the scenes, and for proving that a brand show can be a great watch and great marketing at the same time!
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