The Campaign

Younger men in China are absolutely technology obsessed; they want whatever is next, first. This obsession with experiencing the new permeates everything they buy from the phone they use, to the watch they wear. Using the Fusion ProGlide Razor gives the user a shave that is closer than they would have ever experienced before. We therefore decided to reward buyers with a Virtual Reality 360 degree movie experience that brought them closer to the action than they would have thought possible. An on-pack promotion was run where consumers could scan a code to download to their smartphone the 360 degree Virtual Reality experience in which they became the star. For the first time ever in China, a brand gave consumers the chance to experience Virtual Reality, simply by using their mobile phone. As we had set out to do, the medium truly did become the message.

Creative Execution

We launched during the build up to Singles Day (11th November), the biggest e-commerce day in China; promoting the VR video on China’s biggest social platform, Wechat. We wanted to take advantage of the huge spike in social activity at this time, caused by our audience sharing their purchase news. The video appeared in people’s Wechat Moments, teasing people with the unique experience they could have and directing them through to ecommerce site JD.com to purchase. You simply cannot underestimate the size and impact that Wechat can deliver, we knew that using Wechat as our sole distribution channel would give us bigger impact than TV could across the same time period. Also, by staying true to our social first strategy we could seamlessly align ourselves with our target audience’s natural behaviour, so they could engage with the campaign and purchase the product with minimal effort on their behalf.

? 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 ? Across earned media campaign generated 900 Million impressions (against a KPI of 100 Million) and achieved 600 Million interactions (KPI: 200 Million)

For this campaign, we employed an approach never seen before in China. We knew we had to do something different, we needed a media solution that would stand out in a cluttered marketplace. Whilst the Fusion ProGlide Razor with FlexBall Technology gives an incredibly close shave, this type of message is taken for granted in this category which means it is incredibly difficult for products to cut through. To guarantee the impact therefore, we needed to give consumers an experience that was a close as the shave itself. The medium had to literally be the message.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

We were in a unique situation where the medium really was the message. The task then was to allow this experience to become a medium in itself; broadcasting the brand message to a broader base. Younger men live their lives on social media. They constantly update their profile, showing how they are ahead of the curve. It is also in social that they look for their latest fix of tech gadgets and news. Buying reach in areas like TV just wasn’t going to cut it with this new progressive, almost impatient consumer. We had to engage with them where they naturally congregated and also do it in a way that would use the strength of the 360 VR experience to pull our target audience in. Our strategy therefore was to be social first, sew the seed of the campaign there and then watch as earned media took over.