Multilayered Digital Campaign Spells Success for Nivea Men

To help launch its latest campaign, Nivea Men addressed consumer insights that revealed most men actually avoid shaving due to the irritations that can occur. With this in mind, the grooming brand developed the Silence the Irritation campaign to help educate men on the important role skin care plays in providing a comfortable shave.

To help bring this campaign to life in a relevant and engaging way, Nivea Men partnered with digital media company Break Media to launch a multilayered campaign. Utilizing Break Media’s proprietary Acumen research platform, the teams surveyed more than 1,000 men to find out where shaving ranked on a list of day-to-day life irritations. In fact, the results revealed most men find having to shave—along with the resulting razor burn and irritation—are two of their biggest day-to-day irritants.

These findings also laid the groundwork for the Silence the Irritation campaign, which included a branded Nivea Men hub on Break Media’s online men’s lifestyle platform MadeMan.com, as well as the launch of an eight-episode comedy series titled, “Just Face It.” To help gain interest and resonate with the target consumer, Nivea Men and Break Media knew it was imperative to enlist a celebrity to star in the series and found a perfect fit in Damon Wayans, Jr. “Just Face It,” which followed Wayans’ character through day-to-day irritations based on the survey findings, premiered on May 7 and wrapped in early June 2013.

In addition to housing each episode of the “Just Face It” series, the branded hub featured Nivea Men Sensitive products to correlate with silencing the irritation of shaving, editorial content and relevantly themed sweepstake opportunities (Shave off Your Monday Morning Irritations) that featured a weekly winner. Prizes were based on survey findings and included noise-cancelling headphones, cash prizes to help pay for taxes, among others.

“We are very pleased with the results of the ‘Just Face It’ series and the Nivea Men ‘Silence the Irritation’ campaign,” said Evan Eckman, vice president of marketing, North America, Beiersdorf Inc. “Break Media has been an excellent partner in working with us to create custom program elements that reach our target consumer at hyper-focused, relevant touch points."

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