The Campaign

THE WORLD’S LARGEST COLLEGE OUTREACH PROGRAM: The Gillette Bachelor of Shaving prepares rural Indian Graduates for Life. It was designed to improve the employability of rural Indian Graduates and give them a fighting chance to succeed. Improving the employability of rural youth was a critical, long-term growth opportunity for Gillette. An unskilled job or unemployed graduate simply doesn’t shave as much as a professional employee. And since no job meant no shaving. Gillette stepped in to prepare graduates for the real life in a way that no academic curriculum did. We had an inspiring media idea that could immediately impact hundreds of thousands of young graduates, especially those from impoverished backgrounds. It was a first-to-the-world channel strategy and creation of a brave program that was the world’s largest.The program is the start of giving an entire generation a chance they otherwise could have missed.

Creative Execution

We created the World’s Largest College Outreach Program! Gillette cooperated with 2000+ Colleges in Indian rural districts to offer 350,000 students invaluable career advice, including grooming and interviewing tips. The Gillette Bachelor of Shaving presented workshops in CV/ resume writing, Career Counselling, Grooming, and Interview Skills, giving rural young men the fighting chance to build confidence, develop social skills and try Gillette Guard razor. With mass electronic media not always sufficient in reaching rural areas, our communications plan centered around THE ACTUAL ON-CAMPUS OUTREACH PROGRAM. On-campus events extended the executions to inside the university venues, the activities, the posters and the experts in attendance. Local media were also used as executions were communicated via Print, SMS and ‘missed calls’ (call-backs), Out-of-home, and locally targeted Facebook ads to the target audience. Local celebrity engagement helped to drive reach and awareness, and generated massive free, earned media coverage

- More than 150,000 students graduated from the program each receiving an accredited Gillette Bachelor of Shaving (B.A.s) diploma. - Thousands secured job placements within the first couple of months and many immediately recruited by major corporations straight out of the program - Gillette Guard Razor sales catapulted 40% - Market shares grew 3% year over-year, - But best of all, for 30 million young Indian men, clean shaving became synonymous with achieving professional successes, giving them an equal chance to be ‘The Best They Can Be.’

Gillette was facing stiff competition from the local razors in rural India. Despite of high awareness sales was stagnant. Objective was to drive sales in under-performing Indian states and in the process use media to not only introduce young Indian grads to shaving, but to help fundamentally change young men’s lives. Gillette, the grooming expert wanted to help rural look, perform and be at their best. Bachelors of Shaving was designed to improve the employability of rural Indian Graduates and give them a fighting chance to succeed with their urban counterparts

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

. We focused on Indian Male University Graduates embarking on their job search and living in rural states experiencing burgeoning male unemployment. While these graduates often do disproportionately better on their university tests than other graduates from other areas, their job hunts are often less successful. We know that shaving usage should rise dramatically at this life stage as a point of habit change. But un/underemployment would significantly reduce shaving incidence. Gillette, the grooming expert was in a unique position Gillette, the grooming expert was in a unique position Gillette, the grooming expert was in a unique position. We created the World’s Largest College Outreach Program! Gillette cooperated with 1500 Colleges in Indian rural districts to offer 300,000 students invaluable career advice, including grooming and interviewing tips. With mass electronic media not always sufficient in reaching rural areas, our communications plan cantered around THE ACTUAL ON-CAMPUS OUTREACH PROGRAM.