packaged goods

Brut Slap-Happy For Younger Guys, Real Men

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Look out, Old Spice guy. Brut, a division of Helen of Troy, Ltd.'s Idelle Labs, is launching its first campaign in three years and its first multi-tier national campaign in more than a decade. 

The effort, via Oradell, N.J.-based Sigma Group, plays on the idea of slapping someone who deserves it -- sort of an extension of the slap men give themselves when they apply aftershave. Three TV spots -- as well as print initially, and product integration on Monday night NFL broadcasts -- direct traffic to new Brut Web sites, BrutWorld.com, and BrutSlap.com. The latter centers on an interactive slap fest, where a series of boorish guys -- parodies of real pop-culture personalities -- all but beg to be slapped.

One can "slap" each of the boors with three items, one being a bottle of Brut. One guy, an obvious poke at Old Spice, is a muscular black man with a towel around his waist. In addition to a bottle of Brut, he can be slapped with a jar of allspice or a ship in a bottle. "Pretty Boy Vampire," an obvious parody of the skulking Edward from the Twilight movies, can be slapped with garlic and a wooden stake. Another character is named "The Incident." There's also a Ken doll and a mime to slap. People can also vote on which pairs of characters deserve to be slapped more.

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The site has something called a "Symphonic Slapplication," where visitors can create beats based on the sound of the slapped faces of a menagerie of louts and yahoos (played by employees of Sigma Group, including the creative director). A social media element on Facebook asks consumers to submit to behaviors, characters, types, or people who they think could use a slap. There will also be integration on Twitter and YouTube and a "Bro Bowl" sweepstakes dangling a trip to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii in January.

Marc Broccoli, marketing director at Danbury, Conn.-based Idelle, tells Marketing Daily that the effort aims to appeal to younger consumers while sticking with the brand's "real guy" equity. "Old Spice has been able to talk to younger audiences well, but where this all broke was with the Axe Effect by Unilever," he notes.

"So the whole men's fragrance and grooming segment got this boost in younger men's psyche." He says Brut's buyer is 30-plus. "He's been around. He's the kind of guy who sees fragrance as part of his daily grooming routine. This campaign is basically almost a homage to him, and we tried to make it younger without walking away from the brand."

Three TV spots will run on the NFL Network, Versus and in digital media with product integration on TV and online. NFL Monday Night Recap, for example, will have a segment where the announcers nominate players and others whose behavior or performance during the game make them candidates for a slap. Print ads will run in November and December issues of magazines like Outdoor Life, Field and Stream, Men's Health and Sporting News, with the ads' slap-worthy cads reflecting each publication's vertical.

The campaign includes tongue-in-cheek rules about who can be slapped and who shouldn't be: one's mother, one's mother's mother, Mother Teresa. You shouldn't slap guys who have just spent 69 days in a mine, women, or children (although copy notes that Justin Bieber is neither).

Broccoli says the brand competes with Old Spice, Cody, Stetson and Aqua Velva. "We are very much a mass brand, for the regular guy. We are not trying to be who we are not, and we are not trying to change who our consumer is," he says. "And what we are benefiting from is that now people are going back to brands that they remember and trust, even younger guys. And people have become more risk-averse. So traditional brands that stand the test of time are benefiting."

1 comment about "Brut Slap-Happy For Younger Guys, Real Men ".
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  1. Casey Brennan, November 4, 2010 at 1:59 p.m.

    A blog that would be the perfect "slap" partner (they just published a book too!):

    http://peoplewhodeserveit.com/
    "Socially responsible reasons to punch someone in the face."

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