Gillette: New Routine At-Home Barbershop

As barbershops across the country closed due to COVID-19, men started growing quarantine beards and sporting homemade haircuts. As weeks of social distancing turned into months, guys anxiously sought out solutions to their hairy dilemmas, with thousands posting on social media that they were taking matters – AKA clippers and razors – into their own hands. Gillette quickly pivoted its focus and answered the call with its New Routine campaign to provide the tools and tutorials guys needed to maintain or try new looks at home.  

Ketchum identified the topics and tutorials of most interest to guys using search data from Gillette and input from consumers. We then designed and dispatched the Gillette Barber Council, a trusted team of celebrity barber influencers, to create and publish how-to content. Paid amplification and an integration with BuzzFeed helped extend the reach of the tutorials on owned channels, while earned media highlighted Gillette products as the perfect at-home grooming tools, featuring barbers as trusted spokespeople.  

Four months after launch, the New Routine campaign boasted record engagement, and the Buzzfeed content had higher than average dwell rates – meaning guys were likely watching the content while they groomed. Interviews and tips from the Gillette Barber Council influencers were featured in top-tier media outlets including Essence, Conde Nast Traveler, Cassius Life, Hombre and The Undefeated, showcasing how experts’ tips help guys clean up at home. Overall, the content earned 2.2+ million impressions, inclusive of media coverage and content posted to barber-owned social channels and YouTube. Since launch, the Gillette Barber Council tutorial videos have been viewed 97,000+ times.