In 2016, Philips launched the OneBlade. It shook up the world.. of shaving. OneBlade has the capabilities of an electric shaver, in the portability and low price of a manual razor. OneBlade was one of a kind, creating a category of its own.

Without any competition, the OneBlade was a massive success. Fast forward five years, suddenly, Braun, Remington, and seemingly the rest of the world were making their own OneBlade imitators.

Our job was to hit critical mass, fast, before the competition really made a dent:

Competitor products were not as good. Yet. But we had limited time. Our job was to grow beyond our early adopter audience – into a mainstream audience, fast — before OneBlade became just one of many.

We discovered something no competitor had: 50,000+ highly-rated - sometimes even too good to be true - reviews from satisfied customers. The competition could copy our product, but they couldn’t copy the fact that men already love OneBlade. We used those reviews to establish OneBlade as the leader of the category it started.

Our creative platform played with the tension between reality and fiction. Based on true reviews but creating a fictional world that’s as real as it gets. We called it “One of a Kind” – referring to both the unique product and the incomparable stories we had and told.

From challenger to leader:

The OneBlade launch campaign (2016) challenged the shaving category. It was focused on talking about what OneBlade was not, concluding that because of its superior features, ‘this is not a shaver – this is OneBlade’.

Now, with competitors following closely, we had to stop challenging, and start leading the category we established.

Leaders don’t need to buy influence, they gain it through their actions.

Looking at our 50,000+ positive reviews, we thought: ‘We don’t need to pay influencers, because we already have thousands.’ So we let our newly-crowned influencers speak for us.

In doing so, we’d build trust in OneBlade as a leader brand. And because of the incredible variety of positive reviews, we had a trove of stories for every product feature.

Our strategy was to deposition the competition through our unmatched history – by leveraging real, One of a Kind stories from satisfied customers.

Our tongue-in-cheek films and content were all based on quirky, real stories that established our product as a one of a kind shaver.

An ordinary man turned French monarch shaving his ‘crown jewels’ with his OneBlade... as his shocked cats witnessed it all.

A Hamlet-recital-worthy film, ‘The Dilemma’, where a reviewer mused, ‘to shave or not to shave’.

A steamy, testosterone-filled locker room OneBlade shaving session came to life like a teenage musical.

We brought these and other reviews to life, always dramatising real people’s stories based on their fanatic love for OneBlade.

Beyond that, TikTokers told their own stories, inspired by their personal, amazing OneBlade experiences. One of a Kind gaming partnerships extended our reach. And guerrilla movie posters caught attention outside cinemas, where amazing film posters turned out to be… OneBlade ads.

A One of a Kind campaign that a One of a Kind product like OneBlade deserves.

One of a Kind stories got more out of less

Due to the global economic uncertainty, in some markets, media investment was reduced by 80% YoY. And yet, our work…

- Increased OneBlade brand strength and consideration for OneBlade across all markets

- Achieved 36% above the brand recognition target in the hero UK market, with similar figures across all markets

- Ad recall was double of the previous campaign

- Increased sales, as measured by Philips’ share of search across markets increasing by 6% – which has a statistically significant correlation with actual share of market, according to research from the IPA and Les Binet

By leaning into our history and reclaiming leadership of the category, we elevated OneBlade from a functional innovation to an emotional leader – and drove the business forward at the same time.