The Campaign

Using a proprietary tool that connects passions, brands and fans, we chose Cricket as our sporting-code for Gillette. Characteristically Australian and a gentleman’s game, Cricket resonated strongly with our audience, campaign timing and Gillette brand’s personality. With the biggest, most watched and attended Cricket series about to dominate the 2017/18 Australian Summer, The Ashes - a Test cricket series played between England and Australia - was the sporting opportunity that Gillette needed to once again, get closer to their audience. Our idea for Gillette became Close Matters: Cricket, the game of moments and millimetres. A ball teetering on fingers tips. One impossible strike. A single precision delivery. One run, one catch. These are the moments where an entire stadium falls silent. Moments that change the course of an innings, a match, a career, a team, a nation. Close is electric. Close makes it a battle not a game. Close, matters.

The Brief

Boundary Lounge: $150k Boundary Seating $150k Total activation budget: $300k

Creative Execution

LAUNCH -Consumer promotion giving away 1000 Ashes tickets to consumers who purchased a Gillette product in participating Coles and Woolworth’s stores. -A TVC/video featuring the biggest Australian Cricket superstars ran across Nine’s network and digital partners. -Using Google’s creative format Vogon, we created 133 pieces of audio content that adapted to user’s searches on YouTube that imitated a cricket commentator. LIVE -Gillette Boundary Seating was our principal campaign brand experience. Fans at any match won one of four exclusive seats on the boundary line by submitting a photo and tagging @GilletteAustralia. For 2 hours fans had the closest seats in the house. -Gillette Boundary Lounge created the ultimate fan experience. With the same entry mechanic as the boundary seating fans won access to most exclusive viewing platform and free luxurious shaves. -Gillette Viewers Verdict (GVV), a live broadcast poll encouraged viewers to vote on questions posed by the commendatory team.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Gillette ran a post-campaign brand health study that showed a significant increase over baseline brand metrics: Top of mind awareness: +4 points Consideration: +4 points Purchase intent: +5 points Relevancy: +5 points Likeability: +3 points • Earned media coverage across BT Sports (UK) and Nine news with segments filmed within the lounge • The Gillette VV recorded 9.38 million votes with over 8.2 million page views on the Cricket Australia App 788M people exposed to the Vogon creative and showed a strong increase in ad recall (+36%), awareness (+5%) and consideration vs control (+11%). • Gillette Boundary Seating were utilised for interviews with numerous cricket legends on the live Nine broadcastOver 500 fans experienced the seats • 1,190 fans uploaded a photo to enter • 130 won passes to the Boundary Lounge

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

The Close Matters campaign used brand experience and activation at its core to both emotionally and physically reconnect Gillette with their target audience in Australia within an authentic sporting environment. Cricket and The Ashes Series, ODIs and T20 allowed us the opportunity to bring our strategy to life and engage our audience in a relevant and meaningful way and over a consistent period of time (October – February). Through on-ground activations, consumer promotions, integrated media and brand experiences, Gillette gave Australian cricket fans an experience they will never forget and made the brand relevant once again to Aussie males

We had to move our idea to a functional proposition into a meaningful brand connection through experiential and activation. Close Matters had to build that relationship between our audience and Gillette, and create a value exchange and experience proposition that makes the brand essential to the enjoyment of the game. Being ‘close’ to the action in sport, especially Cricket, really matters. Close is the thrill, the excitement, the passion. So getting our audience close to the game, the players and was imperative to create the emotional engagement and brand affinity we needed. ‘Closeness’ when shaving also acknowledges the benefits of Gillette: the better the blade, the better the product, and the closer the shave. Partnering with Cricket Australia, Close Matters became our idea and platform that gave us multiple opportunities to engage our audience within The Ashes Series, both physically and in media.