- Harry’s on Wednesday (April 2) released a brand new campaign, “Man, That Feels Good,” alongside a refreshed brand identity, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
- The campaign includes two 15-second ads, one 30-second ad and a long-form 70-second spot that use crime movie tropes to intensify the things that its line of grooming products can’t do beyond making men feel good, reminiscent of altering their persona.
- The brand refresh features a latest visual style that appears to unite the corporate’s portfolio. The direct-to-consumer (DTC) innovator worked with creative agency Zulu Alpha Kilo on the campaign while Mythology developed the brand refresh with support from Collins.
Harry’s is preparing for the subsequent phase of its brand with a brand new campaign and refreshed visual style. The company helped kick off a DTC boom when it launched in 2013 but has moved beyond selling razors with a product portfolio now spanning shave, body, hair and skincare.
“Just over twelve years into our journey, Harry’s is rather more than a razor brand and has grown far beyond our DTC roots,” said Giselle Balagat, vp of Harry’s Brand, in emailed comments. “We know there’s an enormous opportunity to grow awareness of the opposite categories we play in as a complete men’s grooming brand.”
While a few of those items are featured in “Man, That Feels Good,” the campaign centers on a brand truth: Harry’s can’t infuse consumers with “handsome bad boy aura” or transform them right into a rugged man of mystery. Instead, the brand’s line of men’s grooming products “just make you are feeling good” and “provide you with a smooth shave at a good price,” said Tim Gordon, partner and chief creative officer at Zulu Alpha Kilo New York.
“We desired to stand out in a category filled with hype, overpromises, and adolescent humor. Grooming is all the time being pitched as a method to an end – use this product and also you’ll be more confident, get the girl, be an athlete. For Harry’s it is a more honest proposition,” Gordon said in emailed comments.
The spots start in the lavatory before spinning out into increasingly elaborate scenarios ripped from crime movies. Two 15-second spots revolve around becoming a getaway driver for a poorly planned art heist and using forged documents and unlicensed cosmetic surgery to assume a brand new identity, respectively. An extended-form spot is an epic in miniature that sees a person have his heart broken, unintentionally witness an arms deal, flee from henchmen, brave the weather and eventually reach an understanding with wolves.
“We desired to tell the story within the straightest and most cinematic way and we knew a gritty appear and feel would stand out within the category,” Gordon said, citing movies including “True Romance” and “Ronin” as inspiration. “The movies needed to be like beautiful instruction videos of what it could ACTUALLY take to attain the overpromises the remainder of the category claim.”
The effort is running on streaming TV platforms including Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, ESPN, Disney+, NBC Sports and Prime Video. It also features digital out-of-home in high traffic areas in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, along with a “significant investment” on YouTube and paid social across Meta and TikTok. Harry’s has further activations planned around influencers, brand partners and social media in the approaching months.
In addition to the campaign, Harry’s has refreshed its brand identity across packaging, logo, color palette and photography, a visible style that may roll out across product, digital, social and physical retail. Brand refreshes have turn out to be a fixture of CPG marketing, especially for brands that began as DTC before moving to other retail channels.
Harry’s is an element of the Harry’s Inc. family of brands that also includes women’s grooming line Flamingo and deodorant brands Lume and Mando. The company, which was valued at $1.7 billion in a personal fundraising round in 2021, reportedly filed confidentially for an IPO last yr. A proposed merger with Schick owner Edgewell was blocked by the Federal Trade Commission in February 2020 over antitrust concerns.
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