Part Three’ for Brand’s First Film Partnership

CeraVe is headed to Hollywood.

The skin care brand has linked with “Dune: Part Three” for its first film partnership — going big with the final installment of a billion-dollar sci-fi franchise that hits theaters on Dec. 18.

CeraVe’s Moisturizing Cream’s global campaign features an extensive rollout including out-of-home advertising, “Dune”-inspired media and creator gifting, and screening experiences in select markets.

Filmed in Mexico’s Samalayuca Dunes, the anchoring “Precious Resource” short film teases the Moisturizing Cream as the fictional desert planet Arrakis’ true hidden resource, instead of the spices that drive the “Dune” plot lines along.

Newly reformulated to last up to 120 hours, the Moisturizing Cream underwent a series of tests to prove the efficiency of the product, tasked with strengthening the user’s skin barrier. Thinking along the lines of the real-life trials the Moisturizing Cream faced, the CeraVe team began exploring other ways to showcase their dermatological advantage.

“The best way to showcase [skin] resistance was to put our product in the driest and hottest place — Arrakis — and that became the theme of the campaign,” explained CeraVe’s global brand president Vincent Chauvière.

CeraVe, which aims to make dermatology accessible globally, is the most recommended brand by dermatologists in the U.S. and boasts over 15 million followers across its social media platforms, making it the most followed brand among parent company L’Oréal’s portfolio.

The company’s “Dune” partnership marks the latest in a long line of campaigns that the brand refers to as “medutainment,” a portmanteau fusing medical education and entertainment. CeraVe faced a retail boom in 2020 and went viral online again in 2024, thanks to a Super Bowl advertisement starring Michael Cera, who pretended to have founded the brand.

Following that, CeraVe ran another spoof promotion with “SNL” in 2025 and later signed a multiyear partnership deal with the NBA. The latter included a campaign with basketball player Kevin Durant, which Chauvière estimates resulted in 82 million organic video views, four billion PR impressions and a 43 percent sales lift. Chauvière also said CeraVe saw double-digit revenue growth soon after the Cannes Lions- and Clio Award-winning ad was released in February.

Chauvière — who joined the company in March — hoped the campaign would help draw in a market he believes is an untapped demographic: men.

“Roughly one male out of three uses a body product,” said Chauvière. “Sport has been very instrumental to us, and we’ve been recruiting more men [to the brand] in the U.S. thanks to it.”

“Dune,” too, was favored due to its widespread appeal, reaching men (and women) across generations, especially Gen Z, which makes up approximately 40 percent of CeraVe’s consumer base. While the Durant campaign appealed to Americans, “Dune” is set to take the CeraVe strategy worldwide.

“Our number-one growth driver is the emerging zones of South and Latin America, South Asia, Africa and the Middle East,” said Chauvière, adding that CeraVe has maintained double-digit growth into the third quarter. “One of the key priorities is to develop the brand there and offer products that answer the needs of these countries.”

Looking to the year ahead, CeraVe’s plans to add new products to existing customers’ skin care routines, such as the newly launched SunCare range, which has been the company’s “number one growth contributor,” according to Chauvière. In addition to acceleration outside the U.S., CeraVe has set its sights on expanding its science and medical work, with Chauvière saying that the brand will assist in the development of 14 publications that will test “the boundaries of what we know about ceramides.”

It’s a particularly competitive time in beauty marketing, with brands pushing the envelope in increasingly new and creative ways.

“CeraVe has to recruit [consumers],” Chauvière continued, citing the brand’s strategy to stick to its dermatologist-supported foundations and continued usage of use the “medutainment” concept as an anchor.

CeraVe’s “Dune” partnership is the first step in an evolving expansion plan that includes branching into various entertainment industries, including music.

“This brand has fantastic potential,” said Chauvière. “It’s already the number two dermo brand in the world. But when I look at the geographic opportunities, the category opportunities, I think the brand has many untapped growth reservoirs to conquer in the future.”

Watch the “Precious Resource” video below.