Advertiser: PLAYTEX
Agency: GREY NEW YORK
Category: Internet Film Series
Editor: Adam Defrin (Grey New York)
Media: Ann Dragovits (Mec)
Director: Adam Defrin (Grey New York)
PR: Andrea Helpern (Lippe Taylor)
Music Producer: Don Mcnally (Grey New York)
Account Manager: Emily Dimakopoulos (Grey New York)
Account Director: Jason Kahner (Grey New York)
Creative Director: Fran Sheff-Mauer (Grey New York)
Celebrity Partnership/Activation: Ilyssa Bernstein (Grey Activation)
Community Manager: Kiran Samuel (Grey New York)
Director: Laura Tiffin (Grey New York)
Director: Maurizio Grammatico (Grey New York)
Copywriter: Nick Bakshi (Grey New York)
Planner: Maya Kinkaid (Grey New York)
Director: Nick Bakshi (Grey New York)
Account Supervisor: Tara Consetino (Grey New York)
Cinematographer: Tom Brink (Grey New York)
PR: Allison Good (Lippe Taylor)
Account Manager: Francesca Sipma (Grey New York)
Copywriter: Jamie Baldanza (Grey New York)
Planner: Nick Bakshi (Grey New York)
Celebrity Partnership/Activation: Sam Raeburn (Grey Activation)
President/Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren (Grey New York)
Copywriter: Abby Meyerson (Grey New York)
Agency Producer: Adam Defrin (Grey New York)
Celebrity Partnership/Activation: Brenda O'donovan (Grey Activation)
Media: Cara Eskin (Mec)
Creative Director: Elaine Mccormick (Grey New York)
Art Director: Laura Tiffin (Grey New York)
Art Director: Maurizio Grammatico (Grey New York)
Implementation
We shocked the world with a campaign featuring bold sexual innuendos touting the benefits of a quick clean up. Some people loved it, others hated it – but most importantly, everyone talked about it. To take the controversy even further, we launched a partnership with an infamous party-boy rock star. Andrew W.K. gave us credentials with early adopters by hosting Vice magazine’s Fresh+ Sexy party at SXSW complete with sampling and the world’s dirtiest confessional booth. With projected media impressions around 350 million, our campaign went on to far exceed expectations by delivering more than 2X the impressions.
Outcome
Campaign generated + 750MM media impressions –impact valued at $10+ million. In just 2+ months, Fresh + Sexy went from a non-existent brand in a non-existent category, to a major catalyst creating debate about sexual hygiene.•Since campaign launch, month-over-month sales increased +300%.•Print coverage in major publications on 3 continents.•Featured on morning TV talk shows.•Promotional party, hosted by Andrew W.K. at SXSW, where we sampled the 4K attendees.•Event’s digital wall pulled user-generated images, posts & tweets using custom hashtags, generating 3MM estimated impressions from 280 twitter mentions.•MTV’s #1 reason they were sad they missed SXSW.
Relevancy
Our integrated campaign went where no intimate hygiene brand had dared to go. We created a vernacular for discussing pre & post sex clean up, and did so with bold, unapologetic irreverence. Creating not just conversation, but controversy. On one side were the progressives – our target –spontaneous & ready to laugh about the taboo topic of sexual cleanliness vs. a conservative culture that still considered sex hygiene an unmentionable. The controversial campaign rocketed Fresh + Sexy into the limelight, making it the type of youthful, playful brand our target could not only relate to, but wanted to defend.
Client Brief Or Objective
Creating a new category for a new product that people really aren't comfortable talking about is a huge challenge. Add to that a relatively small budget and high expectations for the launch of Fresh + Sexy, Playtex’s new line of before and after sex wipes. We targeted sexually-active men and women in their late twenties. While our target was very comfortable talking about sex, sex hygiene was still taboo. So we devised our launch strategy: we would create controversy with a bold, humorous campaign that would get people talking about Fresh + Sexy in a big way.