Hi judges! Here’s our Philips campaign made for everybody and every body

The truth sells. It really does.

Real men, with hairy bodies. Yup, those sell. Philips’ campaign for the Multigroomer 7000 realized extreme profits by selling the truth. The campaign was made for everybody and every body, and it’s responsible for changing the way we look at the category of male grooming. Through this campaign, we added much-needed body positivity content to the category. At the same time, we went one step further and showed body hair positivity. 

The multigroomer campaign boosted inclusion and diversity in the male grooming category, by moving away from the typical handsome man in shaving ads. We showed real men with real hairy needs, in all shapes and forms. This increased Philips market share immensely, selling many products, and making a lot of money.

With this campaign, Philips showed the market leader that it wants to be. In market share, but also in making a positive imprint on society. As a result of the campaign, Philips made loads of money, while having an amazing impact on society too. However, as a for-profit campaign and from a business perspective the extreme profits that were achieved deserve to be recognized. 

The Multigroomer campaign was made for everybody and every body. By disrupting the category and displaying real body hair, Philips led the category by example. By steering away from the typical handsome man, grooming his seemingly-already perfectly maintained hair, Philips created space for diversity and inclusion in the male grooming category.

Philips is a leading brand in the male grooming market, with products built around a deep understanding of men’s needs. One of those products is the Multigroomer 7000, a tool for men to groom every hair on their body, from face to toe. 

The Multigroomer is loved by anyone who tries it but still competes in a highly crowded category. We needed to stand out to become distinctive in a category that had become homogeneous. You can probably picture every ad in the category: an extremely handsome man, standing in front of the mirror, grooming his seemingly-already perfectly maintained hair. 

Philips was guilty of this too in the past. So. to break through the clutter, we needed to refresh Philips’ approach to marketing male grooming. We needed to leave perfection behind, and find a compelling and meaningful position based on men’s real lives – and ultimately, create a new campaign showing the Multigroomer is the obvious choice for all modern grooming needs.

The majority of men are ashamed of their body hair (OnePoll, 2019). When we spoke with real men around the world, we found first-hand evidence this was deeply true: guys were not comfortable having real and honest communications around body hair. This can be felt in the deep absence of male body hair conversations on social media. Just look at the untrue image of (the often lack of) male body hair we see displayed in advertising around us, all around the world. 

We compared male body hair conversations to those for female body hair shaving and hair removal. They have become a lot more diverse and honest in the last couple of years, with brands like Billie and Estrid leading the charge. But until today, this conversation has not happened for men – until we at Philips opened up the conversation. 

To promote the Philips Multigroomer, which is made for everybody and every body, we said “goodbye handsome dudes who typically feature in shaving ads”. Those ‘perfect’ guys are a bad example for the real men with real hairy needs.
 
Instead of perfect men, we focused on showing real and diverse men taking care of their chests, legs, ears, arms, back, armpits, and, yes, balls. By being honest and real about men’s grooming needs and habits, we celebrated all body hair, leaving no men – and hair type – behind. And we did this by proving that there was no better tool to take care of real bodies than the Philips Multigroomer.

Our campaign was body hair positivity on steroids, showing whether guys have curly, thick, straight or wavy hair – you name it, the All-in-One Groomer 7000 series will trim, shave or edge it. 

The hero film leaves men with no doubt: no matter who you are, what your hair needs are, or where that hair might be on your body… the Multigroomer has got ‘ya. 

To tell this story honestly and authentically, we cast real men and real hair. So we brought Brandon, Faried, Aaron, Sven, and Tim and his cat. Plus many more. Real men. With real hair. No filter. No actors or models. Street cast. Found on different groups online. Just guys with genuine, diverse hairy needs. Straight, gay. Young, old. From Gen Z’ers to their fathers. Featuring chests, legs, ears, arms, back, armpits and, yes, sacks. Sweaty, long, dense, sparse – we showed it all. 

An honest celebration of all body hair, and ultimately a more realistic view of how we really look.

Explaining how a male grooming tool is for everybody, for every type of body and every type of hair in those bodies – you see the challenge? – was no easy feat.

So for the first time in our agency experience, we resorted to a different kind of casting. One that would truly honor, above all, real body hair. We couldn’t expect actors to be ready for the task in hand, we needed real people. Normal men with diverse hairy needs.

The male body positivity movement is taking its first steps and is extremely relevant. But going beyond that to create a body hair positivity movement made more sense to us due to the nature of the product and the urgency from male grooming brands to be more open and inclusive in their communication.

We felt there was a responsibility from a brand like Philips to be better than what we see everywhere we look – even Wolverine, the hairiest man alive, has no hair to show for on the big screen. Something just wasn’t right, and we had to do something about it.

And no one better than the ultimate Philips grooming tool, a multigroomer that does not judge or discriminate, to be a spokesproduct for this important message.

Our global campaign scored above Facebook’s benchmark, with a combined 1B+ impressions and 7M in engagement in our key markets. We put the male body hair positivity topic on the agenda and sparked important conversations around the topic, empowering men around the world to feel comfortable and confident in their own, unique bodies.

Most importantly from a business perspective as a for-profit campaign, we witnessed an important market share increase of 14.7 points, corresponding to an 83% and 87% increase in sell-out value and units respectively. These are extraordinary numbers and crushed the business KPIs, contributing to immense profits.