Insight
Gillette already dominates Latin America’s shaving market. The challenge was not so much about growing share as about growing the market.
But how do you make men shave more? Gillette’s insight was that it had to give them more to shave. That is, it had to give Latin America’s naturally conservative men “permission” to shave parts of their body that they’d never previously considered shaving. This would increase the demand of blades, and therefore augment the whole sales of the Gillette portfolio.
So the goal was to encourage men to shave their head, chest, back, armpits… and beyond!
The problem was that body shaving was not mainstream male grooming. In fact, very few men had ever shaved their body. Many of them thought it taboo and believed that it was not socially accepted - by their peers or by women.
In short, to grow Gillette sales, Mediacom needed to change the opinions, attitudes and shaving habits of every man on the continent!
Strategy
Advertising alone would not shift attitudes. Gillette needed to spark a national discussion.
This wasn’t a subject that people were going to talk about of their own free will. Gillette needed to start a debate. It needed to make it part of the national conversation and give Latin American males permission to consider it.
The task was clear: get the topic in front of the media, create discussion and debate in this public forum and then invite men to join in the public conversation.
Basically, Gillette needed to get shaving out of the bathroom and into the living-room, chat-rooms and public conversations.
The message needed to deliver a debate in three key areas:
First, it needed to bring a previously taboo subject into the open.
Second, it needed to educate males how go about shaving in places that had never seen a razor.
Finally, it needed to tell men that Gillette products were the perfect tool for these tasks, with the Mach 3 Sensitive taking on the role of hero product.
Execution
Research showed that 64% of women believe men with a shaved body are more attractive.
Gillette partnered with celebrities and media across the LatAm continent that were credible and appealing to young males, to spark an unbranded debate.
This created a platform to talk about body shaving, inviting men and women to share their opinions on probing questions, such as: “I would shave my chest but not armpits, would you?”, “Are women more interested in full body shaved men?”.
Things were kept light-hearted to make this previously taboo subject more acceptable to viewers and listeners.
To create interest online, Mediacom viralised a series of funny, step-by-step e-videos on ‘how to’ shave each part of the body. The insight proved correct. Once given “permission’ by the media, Latin American men were happy to join the debate.
In Mexico and Brazil, the agency used real consumer verbatims such as “64% of young women believe that a man with shaved body is modern and attractive” and “His intimacy has improved since he shaves his body”.
Gillette – previously never mentioned – now came into the frame and offered razors with “less irritation on the most sensitive parts of the body”. Explaining that women might prefer them if they tidied themselves up a bit was a compelling argument to the young male target.
In Argentina, Gillette partnered with Don Juan Magazine to create advertorials, promoting the idea that women preferred a shaven man.
This message was continued in other online and print environments with actress Norkys Batista using her blog, Twitter and YouTube to start a debate about how women preferred men without hair.
Results
Across Latin America, the campaign delivered 200 million organic views of the body grooming educational videos. In Mexico, performance was double the industry benchmark. Overall, it earned 600 million impressions.
Body shaving has become mainstream; incidence of body shaving grew 33% in Mexico and 38% in Brazil among the target of young men.
Total LatAm sales increased 16% with shipments of the campaign’s hero product up 62% in Brazil and 57% in Mexico.
In Mexico, Gillette volume sales grew beyond 12% year-on-year, far ahead of expectations and achieving its full year sales target in just four months.