#MobExAwards 2021 highlight: Gillette sharpens its message with great results

Gillette Indonesia, regional office for the P&G brand, was quick to notice the disparity in sales between its cheaper, disposable razors and more premium products. The market for disposable razors is significantly higher in Indonesia, with younger consumers making up most of the pack, reluctant to spend more money on a product that can easily be purchased for much cheaper.

In line with sustainability trends over the past few years, which have championed quality over quantity as well as reducing waste, Gillette took to pushing its more expensive products out to the public to help consumers better understand the value of using safe and well-made shavers and convince them of their long-term ROI.

In order to push for this campaign, Gillette Indonesia and MediaCom took a unique approach by focusing their campaign through a gaming lens in making its wider appeal to young consumers.

The gaming industry is a rapidly growing one, especially in Asia where Indonesia has not been left out of this evolving trend. This led to the team to clinch gold for Industry Specific Use of Mobile – Gaming & eSports at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s Mob-Ex 2021 Awards.

Challenge

In the category of shave care, there remains a tall wall to overcome with cheap, disposable products. Despite being a top-performing brand in this industry in Indonesia, Gillette has struggled to upgrade its customers to go for more premium and expensive products such as its Razor Systems and Shaving Gel and Foam.

Another obstacle remained with the Indonesian audience not understanding the benefits of quality shavers. Gillette, thus, took to educating the point of market entry (POME) user as its strategy in its PlayCleanPlaySmart campaign, targeting males aged 15-24.

Strategy 

For Gillette Indonesia, employing digital campaigns was key given its digital savvy POME consumer base. These were largely driven by Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, platforms that were used as awareness drivers.

Gillette Indonesia also partnered with popular gaming KOLs to deliver its message through educational content that would also be engaging. Esports is a rapidly growing space in Indonesia, and according to a study by We Are Social in 2019, 26% of Indonesia’s internet users have watched an eSports tournament.

Gillette’s eSports partner IES conducted one of the biggest series with 84 teams, and 420 plays in 21 provinces that played popular curated games. This event was hosted fully online, and was streamed live on YouTube and Facebook Gaming, as top streaming platforms for gaming and eSports.

A digitally focused campaign revolving around eSports gaming formed the core basis of the campaign with Gen Z, as digital penetration among them is more than 90%.

Execution 

By focusing its campaign on an eSports angle, Gillette Indonesia partnered with Indonesia’s eSports stakeholder IESPA to create an official eSports event, which was then organised by professional eSports organisation, Ligagame.

With seven hours a week spent on playing eSports games and two hours spent watching them, there is a high level of engagement from Indonesians with the eSports scene.

Aside from this, Gillette took to appealing to the masses by employing gaming influencers, who are stereotypically seen as “unkempt and unhygienic” individuals, yet have suddenly been thrust into the spotlight among males in particular.

By featuring top gamers who would then show off their “sharp and clean” look, various opportunities were created to feature Gillette products throughout the live-streams. To close the loop, viewers were redirected to Gillette’s online store where users would finalise their purchase.

On the advertising front, Gillette partnered with Mediacom – PT Wira Pamungkas Pariwara for its key visuals. This included the creation of independent and colloquial content, and the tweaking of the highlight video to convey to viewers the “Gillette ambience” to elicit a positive reaction from its target audience.

For ad dissemination, 87% of the budget was allocated to mobile, with the remaining 9% to computers, 3% to TV and 1% to tablets.

Results 

The Gillette Mach III razor hit the brand recall by hitting 92 points on the campaign, overall registering the campaign’s core message of having a “safe, comfortable shave”.

The eSports content had more than three million views among core audiences for the campaign. As a result, the Gillette Mach III sales grew by 400% on eCommerce platforms, with the Shaving Foam/Gel registering a healthy growth of 260%.