Gillette’s premium razor business relies on the regular sales of replacement cartridges. But trends showed shaving had fallen out of habit. From the sexiest male celebrities to more casual workplaces, men had an excuse to stop shaving. The brand was up against a world of stubble.

Fortunately, we saw the solution: women.

Given the choice, women vastly prefer a clean-shaven kiss to potentially irritating stubble. So we implemented a three-phase strategy to show America’s unshaven males what they were missing.

Phase I seeded a provocative national dialogue “Are We Killing the Kiss?” driven by an unbranded documentary revealing that women reported irritation when kissing a man with stubble, while noting that U.S. men were also shaving less due to sensitive skin.

Phase II put the hypothesis to the test with live Kiss & Tell experiments in 16 key markets, featuring kissing booths, shaving stations, researchers and celebrities. Backed by online seeded infographics and social media chatter, the stubble vs. smooth shaven debate was on.

The results were conclusive: 85% of women prefer their guy to Keep It Smooth Shaven (K.I.S.S.). So Phase III launched a celebration in New York announcing the KISS results, with actress Brooklyn Decker and Super Bowl star Ray Rice hosting the world’s largest shave and kiss event.

And because Gillette’s Fusion ProGlide SilverTouch razor was designed for men with sensitive skin, the product campaign was perfectly positioned to take off.

1.8 billion media impressions later, the K.I.S.S. meme continues to deliver, with engaging St. Patrick’s Day and Spring Break activations.

Every KISS leads to something more meaningful

The agency created, distributed and drove views of “Are We Killing the Kiss?” an unbranded documentary exploring stubble’s effect on kissing. Supported by surveys, infographics, influencer posts on social media and our professional dating expert Marni Kinrys, we ignited a conversation via earned and paid media tactics.

We built on the publicity with a 16 city U.S. tour, using in-market events to promote the Kiss & Tell live experiment featuring local couples publicly putting their kissing preferences to the test. We kept the conversation going nationwide via dynamic content on KissandTellUs.com.

A major Valentine’s Day event at New York’s Time Warner Center, hosted by actress and viral sensation Brooklyn Decker and newly crowned Super Bowl hero Ray Rice revealed the results: 85% of women prefer a guy to K.IS.S. (Keep It Smooth Shaven), launching the Gillette-branded K.I.S.S. meme.

We made out really well

The KISS campaign garnered 1.8+ billion media impressions (earned, owned and paid), earned more than 613 unique media placements across lifestyle, entertainment, and sports media, won the smooth shaven vs. stubble debate by a huge margin and successfully increased awareness of Gillette’s sensitive product bundle.

• 1,702 infographic placements

• 44+ broadcast segments, including Entertainment Tonight, FOX News, ESPN, NFLNetwork, SIRIUS XM Radio, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, and FOX Sports

• 2.5+ million views of documentary and YouTube videos, spurring 5,000+ comments with 5:1 positive response

• 46 million social media impressions, 170% over initial forecast

• 2% social media engagement, double target of 1%, over four times historical engagement of <0.5%

• 338,000+ page views of KissandTellUs.com, with average view time of 1.44 minutes

• Celebrity partners tweeted about the campaign to a total of 5.8+ million followers, creating more than 26 million additional brand impressions

• 43,000 research participants.

• 25,000+ coupon downloads from kissandtellus.com.