Gillette’s Innovative Advertising Strategy Cuts Both Ways

(I know, I know.)

Gillette is getting yelled at on that place where people yell at companies (Twitter). And it’s pretty much all their fault.

They chose to promote tweets which criticised their competitor and praised Gillette. Problem is, it wasn’t just any competitor. It was much-loved, up-and-coming challenger brand Dollar Shave Club.

(Now where have I heard insightful commentary about them before?)

Attacking a small, popular challenger brand without looking mean-spirited and insecure is a difficult feat. Frankly, it’s virtually impossible. No one reads the story of David and Goliath and thinks “man, it would have been cool if the big guy had squished David”. Everyone, up to and including AdWeek, has piled on them in response.

So not the best move for Gillette, image-wise.

But I wanted to flag something else about this.

That one initiative was certainly a bad idea. But the fact that Gillette are experimenting with unusual marketing ideas in this way is genuinely commendable. If they hadn’t chosen to use it in a negative way, that concept – promoting and supporting tweets about their brand – could have been an extremely powerful, authentic way to get attention.

And it’s this willingness to play around with formats and try unconventional ideas that stands them in good stead in the social media age.

For a more effective example, try their viral campaign in China. By faking a (barely) risqué “candid” film with Chinese actress Gao Yuanyuan, they created a tension, a buzz around their category and their product that had huge implications for their sales.

If you’re sitting there thinking that maybe that’s just Chinese people being silly and gullible, you’d be wrong.

(And also kind of racist. Come on reader. What would your mother think?)

Apart from anything else, there was a smaller but similar example made with tennis player Roger Federer not so long ago. 

And it took a very long time for it to come out that the stunt was faked. It looks real. It's unexpected. It's cool. Much like the X-Files, we want to believe.

Now, is hoodwinking the audience the right thing to do? Questionable. But it’s also pretty harmless in a situation like this.

(I mean, who ever got hurt by a razor?)

And beyond all those questions lies this one:

In this roiling media landscape, how can you hope to survive without trying to innovate?

Innovation means a willingness to make the odd misstep. It means risking, taking leaps, trying every option. It means walking in stupid. Creating interesting, playful films like "100 Years of Hair", also featured here a while back.

Does it always work out? Of course not. But inaction for fear of making a misstep – that’s a misstep in of itself. Better to reach out and burn your fingers than stay back and get cold.

And if you need a good shave – well, you’d better not be afraid of cutting yourself.


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Dollar Shave Club Sends You High Quality Razors For Just A Few Dollars A Month

That’s the Dollar Shave Club messaging. 

It's a straightforward pitch, and a good tagline. And in many ways, the tagline above could be used to sum up exactly what is so effective about Dollar Shave Club’s marketing. To the point. Always on message. And with nothing wasted. One line tells you everything you need to know.

If you’re not already aware of Dollar Shave Club, firstly, be ashamed.

(I mean come on reader. Keep up with the times. Read your AdWeek.)

But more importantly, check out this ad:

That’s a great spot, but still more exceptional because it was made with no agency help, little equipment, and virtually no budget. And it was written by the company founders. Nine times out of ten that will leave you with a terrible ad that makes you embarrassed for the company that made it.

What makes it great? A sense of humour never hurts. But more importantly, a careful scalpel. It’s an old truism that it’s harder to write a little than to write a lot. And to create a great ad which gives all the details, makes all the selling points, and still captures the attention through brevity – that takes a knack for cutting in the right places.

(I have never felt so conscious of the length of an article. Just remember, only cut words don’t need, has make sense.)

The important point is that these guys aren’t marketing savants – though they certainly have talent.

This took effort. They drafted and redrafted, worked and reworked. They scanned their script over and over, questioning every part of their creation with no illusions or bias, until it was as short as possible – and impossible to cut further without compromising the message.

They knew they had limited resources, and only one film to make. So they set about making that film as singularly powerful and effective as they could.

Worth remembering from time to time. It’s not universally applicable in advertising. Breathing space can be good. But it’s worth examining your work from time to time, to see how much of it really needs to be there.

Shave off the extraneous. Sell as much as you can, in as little time as you have.