• by Karl Greenberg , March 8, 2012

The Dial for Men brand has joined Pinterest, a social sharing site popular with women.

The brand, a division of the Henkel Co., claims also to be the first men’s personal care brand on the site. Elements of the program, via Philadelphia-based creative agency Red Tettemer + Partners, include a custom mud splat motif spattered throughout each board. The company says no two splats will be pinned twice and every mud splat will be followed by such content with titles like “Fashion to Get Your Dirt On,” “Vacations to Get Your Dirt On” and, “Products to Get Your Dirt Off.”

Dial for Men product board topics will follow common Pinterest themes like crafts, fashion, home décor, recipes, and vacations but featured items will match the interests of men more comfortable driving nails rather than pins.  

Steve O’Connell, executive CD at RT+P, tells Marketing Daily that the very oddness of the placement is one of its appeals. "Reports are going to be mixed but if there are around 11 million people on Pinterest and 80% are women, that's two million guys -- which by itself makes it worth it," he says.

"We are always looking for connections; but we don't have a lot of money and thought it would be fun to go on into this 'sea of femininity’ and be a 'beacon of manhood.'" O'Connell says Dial's presence is not plastered around the site, but is only part of the stream if one "follows" the brand. He says the agency moved fast on the deal and is treating it as an experiment of sorts. "We are doing this in a way that doesn't cost much; we will have masculine stuff, even aside from our products. We don't have a huge following on Facebook -- about 170,000 people -- so the Pinterest program might well generate more interest."

Dial's two biggest competitors are Axe and Old Spice, and O'Connell points out that their budgets dwarfs Dial's. "Their brands do a really good job in social so we are always looking for ways to not always be a follower. But none of them are on Pinterest. This gave us a chance to be the first in the category to play there and get street cred for it."

The effort is part of a general integrated campaign for Dial begun last year that celebrates getting dirty and carries the tag “Get Your Dirt On, We’ll Get It Off.”

O'Connell says the campaign includes a new video commercial that won't be on TV but will run as a pre-roll as part of Dial's sponsorship of Spartan Race -- a kind of extreme, multi-event eco-challenge marathon. Dial's campaign also includes activity on  Facebook and Twitter, and digital banners. O'Connell says that promotional elements on Pinterest will come next.