• by Karl Greenberg , June 15, 2013

The men’s grooming division of Schick is doing its third-year partnership with Fuel TV centering on a 13-episode, 12-week series that puts some regular blokes into daredevil situations and adventure sports. The effort -- “Clean Break presented by Schick Hydro,” via branded content studio Content & Co. and airing both on Fuel and Yahoo Screen -- takes place in New Zealand, where the three guys -- Hal Hardy, Leon Fleisher and Allen Walker -- sail with Zealand’s America’s Cup Catamaran skipper Dean Barker, kayak with four-time Olympic Medalist Ian Ferguson and surf with world-ranked Zen Wallis. 

The series also reprises last year’s program in which the guys were in Hawaii skydiving, mountain biking and surfing the big waves. Fuel says last year’s show was the top-rated late fringe program, with over 85,000 hours streamed across Yahoo since its debut.

The effort, which started June 6, tied into online content at yahoo.com/clean-break, where people can participate and watch behind-the-scenes Webisodes. The Hawaii series is running concurrently on Fuel.

“I think when you have content like this it’s more relationship, more of a  deeper engagement,” says Matt Rader, director of marketing for Men’s Razors & Blades at Energizer Personal Care. He tells Marketing Daily that it complements the larger Hydro marketing campaign and that it has gotten 250 million impressions and 8 million views each year. “It’s given us incredible value when you think about how you go about paying for media and getting attention from media partners. So even over [last] weekend, it was on the Yahoo carousel.” 

Meanwhile, Schick continues with product-focused TV, print and FSI, “which will always be a foundational element of our campaigns,” says Rader. The branded adventure content, meanwhile, “is a gateway for a two-way dialogue with consumers; it gives us an emotional connection. We’re competing against a giant, and in order to get guys to respond you need ‘emotional explosions’ from the heart; you have to get in there and make them have emotional responses; that’s what makes them change.” He adds that before Schick launched hydro the company had an 8% share of the market. “Now we have 12 share, so we have added 50% share since launching 'Clean Break'."

Stuart McLean, founder and CEO of Content & Co., says the idea came from research the studio did about twenty-somethings, suggesting they are “really stressed out because there’s so much uncertainty. They want freedom and they represent that. It’s a different perspective on life.” 

He says the Yahoo content comprises 45 episodes, five minutes each. “We have a massive amount of content from this. I can’t think of a brand that has that kind of library of branded content.” 

Last year, people watched 84,000 hours on Yahoo with a 92% completion rate, per McLean. Hydro gets preroll that goes in with brand message. There’s also a Facebook push.