Nivea Win Marketing Award
Nivea, the Beiersdorf-owned skin care brand have received the prestigious GEMAS Effie MENA award for their marketing campaign 'Tough Men Choose Sensitive'.
The campaign was directed towards men and promoted a range of grooming products for sensitive male skin. We look at why the campaign might have been selected and why this year, Nivea were the only recipient of the Effie Award in the Fragrances and Cosmetics category.
The Nivea for Men campaign was highly commended by the jury as a “triumph of best practice market intelligence combined with unconventional creative execution.”
Nivea were able to successfully create and execute communications which overcame the cultural taboo commonly associated with men who choose to purchase personal grooming products for sensitive skin.
Research conducted by Nivea revealed that a lot of men (particularly in Middle Eastern Markets) felt uncomfortable/ embarrassed to utilise what are known in the industry as ‘sensitive grooming products’ or ‘grooming products for sensitive skin’.
In order to overcome the ‘sensitive grooming’ battle, Nivea For Men relayed messages which showed the brand interacting within a ‘macho culture’. The integrated campaign included everything from print to TV, from below-the-line media to online marketing promotional tools. Every element was carefully devised to communicate that sensitivity and machismo are not mutually exclusive.
One such part to the campaign was a 20 second TV ad (costing £1m in the UK) which features different men almost in tears of pain from the irritation of shaving. The advert uses a split screen to display several males in the middle of their grooming ritual and a ‘musical chorus’ is delivered from the noises of each irritated man. The last note is delivered by the voiceover; "silence the irritation with Nivea For Men Sensitive." The TV ad was also played in cinemas and supported by digital media. Several adverts were released and different variations were broadcast around the world. Take a look at the adverts, some are VERY funny…
THE ORIGINAL
...WITH CELEBS
...IN FRANCE
To support TV advertising and print there was also online initiatives such as a "What's Your Man Quotient" quiz and ‘Nivea For Men Soundboard’ on the Nivea For Men’s Facebook page.
Eli Abrass, Nivea for Men Brand Manager, commented "This award is a recognition of Nivea's constant innovation. The 'Tough Men Choose Sensitive' campaign ran on several integrated media platforms across all Middle Eastern markets. The campaign ideas were innovative and engaged our male consumers resulting in winning 140,000 new Facebook fans but most of all they were effective as evidenced through spectacular sales results."
The Gulf Marketing Review Effectiveness in Marketing Awards (GEMAS) was founded by the Gulf Marketing Review publication in 2004 and set out to commend exceptional and effective marketing communications delivered in the Middle East and North African regions. For the first time in 2012 the GEMAS partnered with the Effies, which recognises outstanding contributions to marketing communications across the world. Effies was launched in 1968 by the American Marketing Association.
Sources:
1. ‘Campaign’ Nivea launches £1m TV ad for Men's range’, http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1120437/, Monday, 05 March 2012 11:57AM.
2. ‘Nivea for Men marketing campaign bags GEMAS Effie MENA award’, http://www.ameinfo.com/nivea-marketing-campaign-bags-gemas-effie-322749, Saturday, December 15 - 2012 at 11:52
