Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Years ago I worked on the Norelco account and spent considerable energy trying to get them to move beyond the typical Father's Day Gift banners featuring dancing electric shavers adorned with ribbons and bows.

Norelco was speaking to women who bought razors for husbands and sons.  They never bothered to speak to the actual users of the device.  That's why it was wonderful to see the fairly edgy site that they boldly launched last year under the Philips brand, www.shaveeverywhere.com. The internet-only campaign, produced by Tribal DDB to promote the new Philips Bodygroom hair trimmer, featured a suave, surprisingly uninhibited man in a bathrobe speaking directly to other men -- most likely surfing at home in their underwear.

Nearly naked men taking to nearly naked men. How novel. It became one of the most successful viral video sites since Subservient Chicken, receiving hundreds of blog mentions but no consumer complaints despite the use of numerous suggestive metaphors for male genitalia. The viral campaign helped Norelco triple sales projections and land it as a top seller in the Amazon.com personal-care category. And it's not even Christmas.

This week it was declared AdAge's Digital Campaign of the Year.

Wayne Mitchell