Advertiser: P&G GILLETTE
Agency: BBDO CHINA
Category: Fast Moving Consumer Goods
Advertising campaign: SHAVE SEXY
President/Ceo - Greater China: Carol Potter (BBDO Proximity China)
Business Director: Mei Jeng Phang (BBDO China)
Executive Planning Director - Greater China: Hans Lopez-Vito (BBDO Proximity China)
Executive Creative Director: Kit Koh (BBDO China)
Strategic Planner: Tao Dong (BBDO China)
Creative Group Head: Airy Han (BBDO China)
Creative Director: Amber Lin (BBDO China)
Account Manager: Elsa Gu (BBDO China)
Associate Creative Director: Kevin Jin (BBDO China)
Managing Director - Greater China: Tze Kiat Tan (BBDO Proximity China)
Account Director: Fiona Su (BBDO China)
Group Planning Director: Jason King (BBDO China)
Associate Planner: Uming Tong (BBDO China)
Executive Creative Director - Greater China: Wai Foong Leong (BBDO Proximity China)
Strategy
‘Shave Sexy’ was a media-integrated idea underpinned by a bold shift to Gillette’s communications strategy in China. The challenge was major category erosion: men in China were no longer able to see past the inconvenience of wet shaving (preparation, shave, wash), driving 18.3 million men every year to switch to more convenient dry shavers (electric). For Gillette this represented US$647.2 million in lost earnings between 06’-12’; we needed to give men a better reason to wet shave.Everything changed when we uncovered a secret about wet shaving: Chinese women find it extremely sexy to watch. ‘Wet shaving makes any man sexy’ they said, demonstrating courage and focus, making her feel ‘beautiful’ and ‘taken care of’. THE BIG IDEA: ‘SHAVE SEXY’Working with psychologists and a pair of identical twin brothers, we created a live social experiment to prove how 40 women found men sexier just by watching them wet shave.
Execution
INCITING A ‘SHAVE SEXY’ NATIONAL DEBATEReleasing the video of this ‘unbranded’ experiment through weibo accounts (China’s Twitter) of a popular celebrity (Japanese idol Sora Aoi) and target-relevant FHM, ‘Shave Sexy’ became a meme overnight. Then, carefully deployed media buys and dialogue-seeding from key opinion leaders drove men to prolifically tweet about ‘Shave Sexy’, debate it, and even reference it in their everyday conversations. ‘Un-planned’ celebrities soon got involved by posting photos of themselves wet shaving, driving men all over China to do the same, amplifying ‘Shave Sexy’ even more. Within one week, ‘Shave Sexy’ was featured on every news portal, men’s magazines and even national radio.CUE BRANDED CONTENTAt the height of activity, an integrated series of ‘branded’ initiatives- from TV spots, radio spots and on-ground events in high prospect cities to in-store placements across key stores- were released to drive dry shaver conversion for Gillette.
Effectiveness
Gillette’s most successful campaign ‘Shave Sexy’ reached 197 million people; 198.5% increase on the previous best-in-class launch of Fusion. Furthermore, and drove 200,000 interactions, exceeding Nike’s revered ‘Greatness’ campaign in 2012.Reversed growth of dry shaving category for the first time since 2009‘Shave Sexy’ reversed the monthly sales of the dry shavers by -21%. Against their 3 year compound growth rate, this translated to a shortfall equivalent to an entire month’s sales of Philips.Gillette’s highest ever growth ‘Shave Sexy’ tripled the value growth of Gillette in December, representing the highest launch sales month in Gillette’s history in China.