Results and Effectiveness

Reach - Locker Room engaged with close to million Malaysian men in just 8 months, surpassing original targets by 522%! By July 2013 (12 months after launch), it has achieved more than 1.5 million Unique Visitors Engagement - More than 1200 likes and 1500 shares, 7 times higher than leading Malaysian male magazine’s online portal. Stickiness - Number of visits and bounce rates are averagely 10% better vs MSN’s more established verticals like MSN Sports Brand impact - Customised post-campaign research through Millward Brown showed double digit growth in brand consideration, awareness, and attribute recall across all four Unilever brands.

Creative Execution

With more than 63% Internet penetration in Malaysia, and given Malaysian men spend most of their time online, a digital platform was most relevant for bringing Locker Room to life. MSN was chosen due to its reach and engaging male oriented content library. A separate tab “MSN Man” was created on the MSN Home page under which Locker Room was housed. In Locker Room, content verticals were created with articles and videos around common interests – “Got Game” (women) for Axe, “Adrenaline” (adventure) for Rexona and Clear and “Style” (grooming) for Vaseline Men. The brands were subtly integrated through display banners, quizzes and tips. Through embedded ‘Share’ and ‘Like’ buttons, men shared articles with their friends, creating Malaysia’s largest-ever online male community Locker Room was also launched on Instagram (144% mobile penetration in Malaysia and high social media usage through smartphones), to deliver bite-sized content through videos and photos.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Objectives - Unilever’s brands wanted to drive awareness and association in the fast-growing Malaysian male grooming segment. But its communication approach, successful among women audiences, was not working well with men. Competitors like L’Oreal and Unza stood out better with this audience through their marketing activities. Unilever was in danger of losing the ‘Battle for Men’. Insight – Malaysian men in their 20s and 30s love their “Bro time”. This is special male bonding time when they ‘hang out’ to discuss anything from women and sports to adventure, grooming and careers. Brotherhoods are formed around these common interests, and the opinions of these “bro’s” act as key influencers shaping overall male attitudes and behavior, and also towards the grooming segment Idea - Unilever connected with men by creating Locker Room - Asia Pacific’s first ever virtual ‘hangout zone’, providing men a unique platform to form brotherhoods over relevant content.