The Campaign

This is a story of how an orchestrated celebrity PR scandal sold 3 million razors in just 4 weeks, and resuscitated Gillette's business in China. The challenge was a decade of seemingly terminal category erosion: 7/10 men in China could no longer justify the inconvenience of wet shaving (preparation, shave, wash, care), driving 18.3 million switchers per year to more convenient dry shavers [Source: NCS 2012]. For Gillette this represented US$647.2 million in lost earnings between 06'-12', and no amount of innovation or promotion could stem the exodus. Everything changed with 'Scandal Shave'. Inspired by the powerful insight that women in China find the act of men wet shaving extremely arousing to watch; an unbranded 'private' home video of national sweetheart GaoYuanyuan, scantily clad and intimately wet shaving with a man was 'leaked' to the media to compellingly deliver our message, generating a national scandal of enormous proportion. Capitalising on this with a full suite of branded activities, the campaign helped Gillette reach 237 million people, record its highest ever monthly sales, and inflict an ever bigger dent in the growth of the dry shaver category. Men were flabbergasted with the effect of wet shaving and felt compelled to try for themselves. By reframing the benefits of wet shaving from inconvenient to sexy, and delivering this message in an unconventionally provocative manner via PR, 'Scandal Shave' finally helped wet shaving deliver value men can see.

The Brief

Our challenge was clear: how could we reframe Gillette's promise to overcome wet shaving's inherent inconvenience, writing a new chapter of growth for the brand? The breakthrough happened when we spoke to the girlfriends and wives of wet shavers. As they described their partner's shaving habits- we noticed their eyes light up, and their voices drop. We realized we had uncovered a forbidden secret about Chinese women: the act of wet shaving was an arousing experience to watch. 'Wet shaving makes any man sexy' they said, demonstrating courage, focus, and most importantly manliness; making her feel 'beautiful' and 'cared for'.

Results

In just 4 weeks, 'Scandal Shave' reached 237 million people, achieved 450,000 interactions, and earned US$14 million in free media. In terms of sales, the campaign helped sell 3 million razors, recording the brand's highest launch sales month in its history in China. Also, the campaign reversed the monthly sales of dry shaving category by 43%, representing a shortfall of 260,000 units; equivalent to an entire month's sales of market leaders Philips and Flyco. All the above were achieved without any changes in price/ distribution, and with just 10% of the average monthly media spend of the dry shaving category.

Execution

We signed national sweetheart Gao Yuanyuan as the brand's first spokeswoman, leveraging he in a way our target could not ignore: an unbranded 'private' video of her scantily clad and intimately wet shaving with a man; while he records the process. And the longer the shave, the greater her transformation- from angelic to mischievous, mischievous to flirtatious, flirtatious to aroused. Extensive effort was then applied to preserve the authenticity of the 'private video'. Not only was the clip sent to weibo users via unmarked DVDs, once it surfaced online it was aided by a stream of 'unbranded' and carefully deployed editorial, opinion-leader involvement and dialogue seeding from celebrities; helping the topic gain nation-wide interest. Only after 2 weeks, did Gillette release a suite of branded initiatives to 'own' the conversation, including the unveiling of Gao YuanYuan as ambassador on popular news portals; converting interest into sales of wet razors.

The Situation

For most men in China, wet shaving was an utterly inconvenient chore. In dry shaving they saw the perfect alternative- decent results but none of the inconvenience. And with the rise of dry shaving brands, men deserted wet shaving in droves: whereas in 2006 50% of men wet shaved, in 2012 only 30% were. This translated to 18.3 million switchers every year. For Gillette, the leader in wet shaving, this was a crisis: category erosion represented US$647.2 million in lost earnings between 06'-12'. Despite extensive marketing efforts, campaign reach declined, and launches became less effective. Gillette's promise needed urgent re-thinking.

The Strategy

The PR strategy was to create a meticulously orchestrated, radical campaign that captured the nation with the sexiness of wet shaving. It was a campaign of many organisational firsts: 1) Unbranded Diffusion- to enhance target acceptance and foster peer discourse, much of the campaign was unbranded, deployed through partnerships with opinion leaders and target-relevant platforms. 2) Entertainment News Marketing- rather than Gillette's historical reliance on traditional media, 'Scandal Shave' focused its attention on driving earned coverage from entertainment news channels and inciting unpaid celebrity involvement; driving social media buzz and nation-wide interest. 3) Taboo Content- 'Scandal Shave' centres around a risqué piece of content, with great effort applied to preserve its authenticity. A huge leap for P&G. Such fundamental shifts required meticulous planning and daily monitoring to ensure nimbleness and to mitigate the risks involved, it also required absolute cohesion and messaging consistency across the different facets of the brand.