The Campaign

India is a land of entertainment. From its millenniums-old mythologies to its over-a-century-old movies to its present-day television dramas, entertainment is the main ingredient in any Indian fare. Like the famous Indian actress Vidya Balan said in her award-winning movie called The Dirty Picture, 'success comes from just three things: entertainment, entertainment, and, entertainment.' The concept of entertainment has seeped so deeply into the psyche of the Indian consumer, that even hitherto serious subjects like sport in general and cricket in particular haven't been spared this dose of entertainment. For example, The Indian Premier League is a Cricket tournament that has been reduced to a three and half hours 'show' (the length of an average Bollywood movie) So, could brands be far behind in this 'land of entertainment'? Brands have also jumped into the bandwagon of entertainment. From in-film placements to walk-in parts on television shows to even showing up in serious news-based channels like CNN, brands and branded entertainment has become the order of the day. Frankly, there aren't any restrictions really to what one can do with branded entertainment. Perhaps, the only restriction is creativity: Descartes - 'I think, therefore I am'.

Results

Problem Indian men think that body hair is macho. Insight Men want to know what women feel. But they want visible proof. The Objective Over the last 4 years, Gillette had nearly doubled its market share on the back of successful campaigns. However, for the brand to grow further we needed to give the Indian men one more reason to be clean-shaven every day. The Strategy Our insight was that bathing is a part of every man's ritual. But research revealed that 83% of women think that if a man is not shaved, it looks like he has not had a bath. Our idea was to create a nationwide uproar that 'Unshaved is Unbathed' Idea Introduce a women's magazine with two different covers And see which one women pick, and why. Execution Gillette partnered with Grazia, and released the same edition of the magazine with two different covers. One cover had the model clean-shaven with no body hair at all. The other cover had the same model sporting a stubble and body hair. These magazines were placed in ladies salons and news stands in select cities of India. Hidden cameras revealed which of these two magazines was being picked up most by women. It helped start a debate on what women think about stubble and body hair.

Our branded content leg began with our unique survey video being uploaded on YouTube and being aired across national television. We got top celebrities and eminent speakers to participate in discussions. This got viewers glued to find out the thoughts and views of these celebrities on a highly debatable topic like ours. Women - celebrities and citizens - gave us their opinions on what they felt about 'Unshaved is Unbathed' and smelly stubble. They also reciprocated with numerous stories about what they felt through blogs, tweets, Facebook updates and radio shows.

Results • Highest ever earned media coverage • $9.4 million worth of free media • 1.78 billion impressions • Record back to back, 4 months of share growth • Crossed 2.7 million fans on Facebook • Reach of over 10 million people on Facebook • Over a million views on YouTube for the survey video