"Nozizwe" is a brand film that brings to life Gillette’s global crusade "We Believe" in a uniquely South African context.

Gillette has celebrated the relationship between fathers and sons for years. But in South Africa, two out of three children is raised without their father.

The film "Nozizwe" paid tribute to strong South African mothers and grannies raising a new generation of South African men.

The team picked WOMEN’S DAY in South Africa, to bring our purpose to life through a PR activation of the film.

The idea was to give South Africans a piece of content that they can share every year on social media, thanking the women & Gogos in their life who raised them. The idea was to make Gillette synonymous with WOMEN’S DAY, and for the campaign to rise organically each year on WOMEN’S DAY.

This was the PR activation of a Gillette brand film - "Nozizwe"- that celebrates the South African mothers and grannies that raise 2 out of 3 South African boys to manhood. We chose to activate on a very significant national day – Women’s Day- a day where South African women are honoured.

The idea was to give South Africans a piece of content that they can share every year on social media, thanking the women & grannies in their life who raised them. We used prominent and heroic personalities that every day South Africans could relate to, who also shared the film and spoke about their own mothers and grannies. The idea was to make Gillette synonymous with WOMEN’S DAY, and for the campaign to rise organically each year on WOMEN’S DAY.

Because of the competitiveness and clutter of media, it's much easier if the brand can associate its cause with an existing powerful moment for the audience. This is the strategy behind #GogoNozizwe.

We took a brand film that brought to life Gillette's global campaign in the uniquely South African context, and made it into a piece of content that people can share every year on social media, thanking the women in their life who raised them. The idea was to make Gillette synonymous with WOMEN’S DAY, and for the campaign to rise organically each year on WOMEN’S DAY.

We used prominent and heroic personalities that every day South Africans could relate to, who also shared the film and spoke about their own mothers and grannies.

WOMEN’S DAY is short lived. The buzz starts 1 day earlier on Aug 8th & ends by the evening of the actual day: Aug 9th. It was critical to time the execution so as many South Africans would have seen the film activated & use it to share their tribute. This meant that they had to see the film before 9th Aug. Hence, we started seeding on 8th Aug, so that on 9th Aug- South Africans would share it organically, as a tribute to their mothers and grannies. The campaign was placed in all key social media touchpoints, news sites, Google Search, & Youtube masthead placements. Plus coverage from all the national media because of the topical nature of the film.

Within 24 hours, the campaign went viral and trended organically. It caught the attention of the South African President who referenced it in his speech to the nation.

The campaign featured in the President’s speech to the nation, broadcasted across channels.

Afternoon Express & Top Billing, the top TV lifestyle shows in South Africa, each gave a dedicated segment on the campaign:.

It was featured on the top news site in South Africa: News 24.

UNICEF tweeted the campaign from their global account.

More than 70% positive sentiment in social engagements.

96% positive sentiment for the brand (up from 75%). We reached 5.5m users in 72 hours.

It achieved 27 million impressions (for comparison -South African population is 55 million), more than 5 million reach digitally, more than 500,000 ‘engagements’ on social media, more than 250,000 clicks, more than 1 million reach on TV, and more than 1.8 million reach on radio. These numbers would usually take a brand few months of media activation to achieve - Gillette achieved this with merely 48 hours of focused activation & 3 weeks of minimal media support.