We searched for insights into the use of men’s razors and found one undeniable truth: If you’re a man in a relationship, you’ve discovered hairs in your razor that aren’t yours. Your wife or girlfriend is using your razor, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

So, we created a place for men to hide their MANS Razors – a series of hollow books so boringly.

We designed the books to look as real as possible. Even the pages are unglued on the outside.

Every element of design or copy hints at what’s actually inside, from the book’s titles, to the author’s name, Rans Mazors (a play on MANS Razor), to an image of the actual razor hidden in plain sight on each cover.

Between February 28 and March 18 we hand- delivered 6 books to each of our 6 carefully chosen influencers (one each).

Each influencer been chosen for their influence in our intended target demographic, and each had a similar sense of humour to the brand’s, indicating the package would be well-received by them and their audiences.

Our influencers responded very positively, sharing it across their social channels almost immediately with the brand hashtag.

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Our influencers responded very positively, sharing the media drop and the brand across their social channels almost immediately.

With just under £185 we earned the opportunity to reach over 95 000 people with a strong brand-positioning piece endorsed by a trusted source.

Rather than putting our budget into a few digital banners, we wanted to put the product into people’s hands, let them test the quality and fall in love with the brand. This is why we went direct.

We carefully selected key influencers from our target market (men 18-35) who speak with a similar tone and humour to the brand’s - bloggers, comedians and social media personalities with dedicated followings that they engage with frequently.

We had to balance budget with impact. Social influencers receive media drops all the time and many go ignored. We had to ensure that ours was crafted and beautiful if we hoped to stand out and get coverage. Our strategy was to produce fewer books of a higher quality, ensuing maximum impact.

And it worked.

In South Africa, in the world of men’s razors, the market is dominated by a handful of key, established international brands – brands with a fortune of media spend.

Our client, takealot.com, had just launched their own house-brand razor; MANS Razors for men – an affordable, low-cost razor brand with a huge personality.

MANS’s budget was all but exhausted on developing and packaging the product. They had next to nothing left for an actual launch.

Our brief was to create a blogger drop – something that would grab the attention of a few, carefully selected local bloggers, make them fall in love with the brand, and get them to share the brand with their social networks.