In this article: how a credit-card-sized UV indicator brought sun care science to life at the Garnier SUPER UV influencer event.
For the launch of Garnier SUPER UV, USP Solutions developed a pocket-sized UV indicator card that turned invisible UV exposure into a visible colour change in seconds. The card was the centrepiece of the influencer event in Paris, giving content creators a simple, photogenic proof point they could share live with their audiences.
The brief
The Garnier team needed a way for influencers and beauty journalists to experience the difference SUPER UV protection makes, not just hear about SPF and PPD ratings. Our brief was to create a demo that worked in any lighting, photographed well on social, and was unambiguous enough that even a 15-second video would tell the story.
The demo
The UV indicator card uses a photo-reactive pigment that shifts colour when hit by UVA and UVB rays. Influencers applied SUPER UV to half of the card, exposed it to daylight or a controlled UV lamp, and watched the unprotected half turn deep purple while the protected half stayed pale. The before/after contrast made the protective effect obvious to anyone watching, including their followers at home.
Why this kind of demo works
Sun protection is one of the hardest claims in beauty to prove because the active ingredients are invisible. By translating SPF and PPD into a colour signal, the demo created the “a-ha” moment that pure data cannot. It was easy to scale: the same cards were later distributed in pharmacy training kits and used in retail point-of-sale displays across Europe.
For more on how we use indicator-based demos to make invisible claims credible, see our piece on what makes consumers believe a product demonstration.