Gillette wanted to make an impact on Father’s Day, a key (extremely crowded!) moment in their calendar, in a way which allowed them to communicate their brand purpose of ‘supporting men to look, feel and act their best’. Building on the conversation they had started around modern-day masculinity, we also looked to cut through other brand activity and reach UK men of all ages.
Hill+Knowlton Strategies analysed the conversation and landed on the insight that for those without a father, Father’s Day can be extraordinarily hard. We worked with Gillette to tell the stories of men who grew up without fathers at home, celebrating the ‘untraditional’ role models in each of their lives who had encouraged them to be the best they can be.
Given Gillette’s broad target audience, we identified talent who had a relevant, engaging and authentic story to share about their untraditional male role models: Ian Wright, Professor Green and Joshua Coombes. We worked with a trusted director to build creative treatments that seamlessly wove in Gillette brand messaging and integrated product in an authentic way (an important requirement for all P&G brands). The content was pitched to media and amplified with talent interviews in key target publications.
Our campaign delivered strong media and social results, and an impressive uplift in net sentiment* of +22%, a positive shift from the 2018 benchmark average. Importantly, based on social commentary the brand received, we drove a +25% positive shift in sentiment in the UK. It received 506,000 video views with 22,500 engagements (with an average engagement rate of 4.45%) and we secured 104 pieces of coverage.
