Have you heard about “shaveeverywhere.com”:http://www.shaveeverywhere.com yet? If not you really need to “visit the site”:http://www.shaveeverywhere.com/ now.
I’d love to get some feedback from you my ever-faithful One Degree reader – yes I know who you are. My gut says this is one of the most effective microsites ever, but I’d love to here pros and cons on the site and the overall marketing strategy at play here.
Key questions for discussion are, how would Philips ever market an electric “everywhere” groomer without this site? Where would you find the target market if not online? How would you get their attention with out the tongue-in-cheek style and edgy humour? How would you get them to buy such an embarrassing product without offering an online purchase option?
Side topic: How do we feel about a world where male body hair is considered as unsightly as female body hair (in North America at least)? I used to joke with my kids that people would swear they had “ear odour” if P&G started marketing ear deodorant.
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It wouldn’t get run without the internet, far too many people who would cry out against this ad would be seeing it. The internet has a better chance of being successful as there is a lower chance of those people viewing the site. Think about grandma Ethel who has too much time on her hands and an itch to bitch. (No offense to grandma Ethels out there).
As for the ad itself, I loved it. It was funny and really reaches out to the guys who would be genuinely embarassed by the topic. You don’t actually have to nail the “bald” look though. All the girls I talk to would feel weird about that, but the “trimmed” look is what you’re aiming for.
The product itself gets an A+. The “family jewels” are certainly the most worrisome thing then you’re doing the groundswork, especially with a mach3…
As for the advantages, well, give it whirl. You’ll notice improvements in all 5 senses. Including some unexpected ones from any significant other.
The ad is funny, there’s no question. In some places, when buffering, it jumped a bit, so even though I knew what was going on it was not a super-smooth viewing experience.
This is the kind of thing that can take off online virally. It’s starting already. *smile*
In terms of the product itself, well who knows, I don’t know a lot of guys that shave everywhere (then again, I don’t ask) so I don’t know how big of a problem it really is, and how big a market there is. I do think that selling this on the Internet is key; the Internet is the best place to market something like this since it’s expected that Internet marketing is a bit edgier.
More than anything, an ad like this, once it gets hot on the Internet, will likely help Philips with their other shaving products, more than it will necessarily make their “shave everywhere” product a huge seller.
It’s great buzz for the whole line of Philips shaving products…
Here is how I posted it on my blog…
shaveeverywhere.com
Thanks to Ken Schafer from One Degree, I say this great micro site for Philips. Ken Schafer sums it up very well in his post.
Personally, what I find very interesting with this marketing initiative is not so much the fact that we have used the Internet to allow the use of a more sensitive language or subject to advertise this product, but when you think about it, I believe that it is really a good exemple of the selection of the proper media for the target customers and more importantly, the use of the technology for a web 2.0 mind set. The customer/user really has the power and can interact with the brand. Is there a better way to experience the message??? My question now is, how did Philips managed to build the traffic on this site? Blogs is most certainly one of them. Is there anybody out there has an answer?
I put a call to action on my blog to drop by One Degree and join in on the commentary.
The concept is great and the site is quite well done.
No other medium could have been utilized to engage and demonstrate in such an irreverent manner. It works on many levels.
Most importantly though, the message comes through loud and clear. I know exactly what the product does as a result of visiting the site. I will forward on to others and expect they will forward as well.
Big win for Phillips and for men who want less hair there.
BTW – from an experiential marketing angle, do you think they would do any onsite demos, oh let’s say at Gentlemen’s clubs for instance? Sorry, could not resist!
Second BTW – that first comment by M. Williams… little bit too much personal info 😉
As well, how else but with this site could you:
1) Get someone’s wife to spend hours investigating the product for her husband
2) Effectively reach a niche gay audience without creating an entirely different campaign
Agreed Ken, greatest microsite I’ve ever seen.
Well though, there’s always the VW test drive microsite (http://www.vwfeatures.com/) that gets meta when it aknowledges that it’s a website.
The test drive video closes with the narrator saying “now, let’s get you back to the Internet.” Priceless!
Cheers!
ES
Hey Eli,
That VW site IS great. I don’t think we’ve written about it on One Degree but I’d second you comments and suggest our esteemed readers check that out as well.
Ah, to be clean-shaven and driving a fast car…
Would any women care to comment?
It’s a great micro-site, but I wonder if it’s “on brand”? My concern is that people are doing things to their brand online simply because they can.
It may not be the best long-term direction.
I think these guys get away with it, but I fear the marketers out there are busy trying to figure out how to use YouTube and Second Life for “eyeballs” rather than sincere conversations and connections.
I’m not trying to be anti-what-everyone-else-is-saying, I’m just concerned that irreverence for the sake of irrelevance isn’t necessarily a strategy.
When I first saw this campaign it reeked of sloppy subservient chicken seconds (with better graphics) to me. Yes, it will be viral because of what it’s saying, but not who is saying it.
In four months will anyone remember if it was Philips, Braun, Panasonic or Remington who offered you that additional optical inch?
P.S. We all could use an additional optical inch 😉
At the risk of oversimplifying history to make a point….in the early years of TV, advertisers did radio-style ads on TV before they figured out how to use the TV medium effectively. In the early years of the internet, advertisers did print-style ads, and more recently TV-style ads on the internet, with the primary benefit of the medium coming from its superior targeting ability.
However, I think this is a fantastic early example of an advertiser using the internet to communicate brand benefits in a way that’s unique and fine-tuned to the internet – this particular ad couldn’t work on TV.
Mitch does make a good point about whether there’s adequate brand registration – there probably isn’t – but that’s still true of many TV ads after 60 years of experience. I’m sure these types of ads will improve over the years – perhaps not in entertainment value (I loved it), but in effectiveness as advertisers learn “what works”.
On the issue of “too sensitive for TV”, I do recall the same discussions about ads for feminine hygiene products over 20 years ago… it seems that advertisers figured out a solution. The issue isn’t whether they could run this same ad on TV – they shouldn’t. However, I’m sure they could come up with an ad that’s appropriate for TV if they judged that the market potential was big enough.
And Ken, re the world where “male body hair is as unsightly as female body hair”, I’m not sure how old your kids are but based on ummmm….blatant comments to me from my 10 and 12 year old boys (yes boys – you TOO will grow hair there….very soon!), I fear we’re pretty well there.