The Campaign

Body hair should not complicate life. Like unwanted body hair, methods like shaving and waxing to remove it are often unnecessarily painful and annoying. We wanted to broach the topic of unwanted body hair in a light hearted and entertaining way without being too crass. To do this and to create a memorable brand that breaks through the clutter, we personified body hair with a fun character, Harry, a persistent, clingy Gorilla, and THE ex-boyfriend of every Singaporean woman.

Creative Execution

The campaign started last November where we created an online profile for Harry and rallied key online influencers to be in a “complicated relationship” status with him. We timed these relationship statuses to happen simultaneously, which caused Harry to become a stud overnight. We pulled off the campaign by gaming Facebook’s algorithm, that placed relationship statuses as top priority on the news feed. Just like the social effect that occurs when someone gets engaged, and announces it on Facebook, we wanted Harry to form “complicated relationships” with the same effect that attracts tons of comments and reactions. We circulated videos of Harry’s relationships going viral and gave out free IPL sessions at Japan IPL Express outlets to those declaring complicated relationships with Harry. These complicated relationships became “advertisements” with a multiplier effect as people got curious when they discovered it, and were humoured to jump in on the bandwagon.

Harry has become a key asset and a recognisable character of the brand. The campaign attracted an endless scroll of complicated relationships on Harry’s Facebook wall, with many going crazy over him. He left a trail of broken hearted souls across the internet accusing him of stealing girlfriends, warning friends of this playboy who’s accumulated complicated relationships with so many – generating free publicity in an unprecedented way. With that, brand awareness for Japan IPL Express increased and their salon visits multiplied.

Based on research, despite interest in IPL services, there was a lack of sales amongst the female demographic, aged 20s-30s. The strategy was then to raise awareness to females in this demographic. The character stemmed from Japan IPL Express’ use of different types of gorilla as part of their brand. So we created one that is more personable and one who can personify body hair to broach the uncomfortable topic. Facebook is a platform popular for those in this demographic. They are found to be digitally savvy and wouldn’t usually fall for typical ads. So we created an interesting way to reach out to them through one of Facebook’s popular features - a relationship status. We engaged female influencers on board the campaign to make use of their existing network. Many of them had followers within our target market, that followed every move their idol made.