The Campaign

The Single’s Day sale was an opportune moment to convince men to buy Gillette. Launched by e-commerce giant Alibaba as a counter-culture to Valentine’s Day, Single’s Day has since emerged as a big annual e-commerce sales event for both singles and non-singles alike. To stand out and drive more sales during 11.11, simply offering a discount or a promotion bundle will not help the brand stand out in a sea of discounts and promotions. In short, we needed a Single’s Day offering that was rooted in a stand-out idea. We started out with a universal need prevalent among all men: to be as confident and as desirable as they can be. With the emergence of new virtual reality technology, however, Gillette had an opportunity to address such a universal need in a way no other male-grooming brand has ever done before – by making it happen for real, virtually.

Creative Execution

We launched China’s first ever virtual reality mini-movie for Gillette, and immersed our target in this revolutionary 360-degree VR experience during Single’s Day 2015. 1. Promoting the VR video on China’s biggest social platform, Wechat 2. We sold a special pack of Gillette with a pair of Google Cardboard VR goggles on T-mall (China’s largest e-commerce site). 3. After receiving the special pack, consumers were invited to scan the QR code and download the Gillette VR app onto their phones, and enter the world of Gillette virtual reality. 4. Through VR, they were treated to a fully immersive brand experience… and became the suave hero in the film. They were able to interact with Gillette Fusion, hold it with their own hands, and experience the thrills of sky-diving into an evil lair, defeating a slew of villains, and finally experience the excitement of rescuing a beautiful woman.

? In less than 8 hours the special packs sold out on all e-commerce sites ? Even after the special packs had sold out, sales that day went on to be double the year before ? The Brand Equity score for Gillette peaked in this month, regardless of investment in other areas across the rest of the year ? The brand health Index for Gillette achieved its highest figure for 3 years in this period ? The video promotion on Wechat achieved 52 million impressions

For this campaign, we employed an approach never seen in China before. We knew we had to do something different and needed a pioneering experience that will stand out in the cluttered market place. Whilst the Fusion Proglide Razor with Flexiball Technology given an incredibly close shave, this type of message is taken for granted which means is incredibly difficult for products to cut through. To guarantee the impact, we needed to give consumers an up close and personal experience that was as close as the shave itself. The immersive stimulation leverage mobile and Virtual Reality is the message.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The Single’s Day sale was an opportune moment to convince men to buy Gillette. Launched by e-commerce giant Alibaba as a counter-culture to Valentine’s Day, Single’s Day has since emerged as a big annual e-commerce sales event for both singles and non-singles alike. To stand out and drive more sales during 11.11, simply offering a discount or a promotion bundle will not help the brand stand out in a sea of discounts and promotions. In short, we needed a Single’s Day offering that was rooted in a stand-out idea. We started out with a universal need prevalent among all men: to be as confident and as desirable as they can be. With the emergence of new virtual reality technology, however, Gillette had an opportunity to address such a universal need in a way no other male-grooming brand has ever done before – by making it happen for real, virtually.