• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, October 16, 2014

In a bid to shore up its massive Olay brand, Procter & Gamble is introducing a new campaign starring actress Katie Holmes, urging women to be “your best beautiful.”

P&G, which announced that it had tapped Holmes as Olay’s first-ever global brand ambassador last month, says the new effort grew from insights that American women never want to settle. “That means never settling in her life, work, family, friends, with her skin,” says Robyn Dutra, Saatchi & Saatchi’s global creative director for Olay, “always striving to be her best beautiful. To live up to the woman she sees in the mirror – with an empowered confidence, her beauty a never-ending journey,” she tells Marketing Daily in an email. “That is what never settling is all about.”

The spots are breaking first in the U.S. and North America, then in Europe and Asia. And it will promote the full range of Olay products.

Dutra adds that the 35-year-old Holmes, known for her trademark smirk and all-American good looks, “is the ideal fit for Olay, no matter what age, because she is the perfect blend of aspirational and accessible,” calling her “a confident, modern woman.”

Bennett (“Moneyball” and “Capote”) Miller directed the TV ads, while fashion photographer Tom Munro shot the print creative. The marketing initiative also includes social and digital media and in-store displays.

But the new effort comes at a time when Olay is stumbling. Euromonitor International reports that while U.S. skin care spending grew by 2% in current value terms in 2013, to $12.5 billion, the brand is losing sales. Olay, which includes the flagship products, as well ProX, Special Effects and Regenerist, is still continues No. 1 in the $107.2 billion world skincare market. But Euromonitor says its market share has shrunk from 3.6% in 2009 to 3.4% in 2013. And its decline has been even steeper in the U.S., with Olay slipping to a 6.5% share in 2013, down from 8.7% in 2011 and 9.5% in 2009.

And Brand Finance, a London-based company that calculates brand valuations, says Olay fell from the 7^th most valuable global cosmetic brands in 2013 to 9^th this year.