Men are unlikely to dream about shaving. They will dream about the gentlest shave given to them by a fantasy pin-up model. For many Japanese men that model is Sayaka Tomaru, a popular actress with many, shall we say, ‘natural assets’. So that’s what we delivered. Men from the media, leading influencers and consumers, were invited to a ‘Fantasy Shave’ by Sayaka Tomaru. And, of course, they came. The twist? The shave was delivered through virtual reality. As Sayaka gently caressed their faces whispering to them through a 360 VR experience, so the men could actually feel the new Gillette Fusion ProShield, with its unique smoothing gel, glide across their skin. It was too good to be true. It really was too good to be true! As the VR goggles were removed the surprise was revealed. Their most gentle fantasy shave had actually been given to them by a man.

The first challenge was to train our pin-up model in the art of gentle shaving, and then have her deliver an authentic shave to a 360 camera – an unusual scene. Once that was ‘in the can’ we identified five male stylists to practice shaving perfectly in synch with Sayaka’s VR video. After a month of intensive training, we invited men to a two-day “Gillette Fusion ProShield Gentleness Clinic” and some 475 men, including media, influencers and KOLs, rushed to the clinic for their ultimate ‘Fantasy Shave’. During each ‘Fantasy Shave’ the pretend Sayakas (male stylists) were guided by a video monitor and we even had them wearing the model’s brand of perfume to enhance the authenticity of the VR effect. If the VR experience wasn’t enough to impress upon them how gentle a shave the Gillette Fusion ProShield could deliver, the final unexpected twist certainly left a lasting impression!

Tier 1: The campaign event pre-release generated 153 news articles and the teaser movie was played over 5,000 times.

Calculated ad value of the earned media coverage amounted to ¥31,486,843 (almost US$300,000).

The ‘Fantasy Shave’ experience was shared over 2,000 times through social media channels.

Through media coverage and online viral sharing online, the campaign reached almost 1 billion impressions in a single month.

Tier 2: Some 475 media and bloggers attended the clinic for their ‘Fantasy Shave’. In fact the event was so popular some had to be turned away due to the waiting time.

Tier 3: In the highly competitive Japanese razor market, sales of Gillette Fusion ProShield increased 104% in just two months.