10 posts tagged “shaveolution”

Our TV ad is back on air again in the UK from Saturday 14th November for 3 weeks, across Sky Sports 1, 2, 3, Extra and ESPN, as well as Dave and Dave Ja Vu.  With over 625,000 Azor handles & 3,500,000 Endurium cartridges sold since launch, it will continue to build on the increasing momentum King of Shaves has in the market. 

We've carried out some research into what people have thought of our ad too - the good, and the bad - after all - you can't please everyone ;-)!

• "The ad is very original, I liked the basic idea - to show that using this razor is fun and easy".
  
  
• "The part about a 'Lady on the Arm', is terribly cheesy, cliched, manipulative, transparent towards the viewer, and heavily over used in marketing. Of course this is my own personal opinion, but then I am a near 40 year old guy with a gut sack the size of a small village, and have nowhere near the pulling attraction of your average twenty-something toned and tanned boyband contender. So forgive my envy of those whom this marketing is aimed at.  On the plus side, loved the dance tune, and the monochrome South Park styling of the humorous animation. Could have been more informative and convincing of the products genuine scientifically proven merits,  that said I love a good monkey dancing around the screen. so, more monkeys please!"
  
  
• "Animation was disorientating. Music was gaudy and distracting. I found the whole advert to be extremely hetero-presumptive; not all men who buy razors are straight and clean-shaven - some of us are gay and/or have beards! Sorry, I absolutely hated it."
  
  
• "I liked it because it is different from other shaving product adverts on the market. It makes the product seem cool and a must have. The use of the animation makes it stand out from other similar product adverts and has a a certain quirkiness and coolness. The use of Darwin is clever (especially as its his 200th anniversary of his birth and 150 yrs since Origin of Species was published which ties in with the evolution of shaving. Very clever. Music was good".
  
  
• "It's TOP! I really like it! It perhaps appeals to a younger person like myself, to the under 35's and mid twenties I reckon as its fun, its not technical like the Gillette adverts (which are always so droney and similar), its really good! Love it! How refreshing!"
  
  
• "Positive:  It's very original & fresh - I can see it often without problem.  I think it carries a neat idea (modern, advanced).  Negative: It's in black & white, and many people do not have interest in watching or thinking what its about."
  
  
• "The advert was outstanding.  Visually creative and innovative.  Very original, stylish and fun.  This advert I feel is far more memorable and effective than say for instance the cheesy, wooden and boring Gillette counterpart starring Tiger Woods and Co."
  
  
• "I didn't like the men in pants.  This advert is aimed at men and most men don't want to see that (although pleasing for women)"
  
  
• "Darwin is used as it is the 150th anniversary of publication of The Origin of Species and you are attempting to say that your razor is an evolutionary jump.  Yet the music and style is aimed at those who are almost living proof that they are not the next evolutionary jump but rather a step back towards the great apes"!
  
  
• "The music was terrible, and annoyed me considerably. The whole tone was irritating and desperately trying to be 'youth' in appeal.  Whoever thought of shaving Darwin like that should be fired immediately. By a firing squad".
  
  
• "I enjoyed the animation the most, it looked original and interesting. The concept and the feel of the ad was high quality but also had a certain British feel to it, this made me feel like this was a British company that might need my support over major international corporations like Gillette. Shaving Darwin's beard was amusing".
   
• "I liked the style of it, the animation was simple but effective and conveyed the key points.  The screen wasn't too over-saturated with activity and the use of black and white aided this, so the viewer knows what to focus on.  It flowed well overall and the music seemed to harmonize with the theme and concept of the product".
  
  
• "I like the animation style (though the tongue out on the monkey turns my stomach a little). It's clever and interesting to watch, amusing".

So, the 'blade wars' start to ramp up.  I spotted that Superdrug today now have old style Wilkinson Sword (Schick) Quattro cartridges (not Titanium) at 20p off.  Oooh, that's a big shaving, not.  Plus, they've also taken £2 off the cost of their manual Quattro razors (still more expensive than Azor at full price) and £3 off their hedge-trimmer razor (sorry, 'Titanium Precision) - also more expensive.  Plus, they've brought their 'Mo'vember promotion forward...into October.  Bit kneejerk, but as it's for charity, well - I'm not criticising this (we partnered with Movember in Australia a few years back).

In addition to Asda slashing up to £3.30 off Glllette Fusion & Mach3 cartridges, Tesco and Boots have only the sort of (Costco buy in bulk) promotion that P&G could think of, where you have to spend nearly £20 for 13 Fusion blades, saving you £11 off the already over-priced high price.  With the average supermarket basket shop being about £80, Gillette are asking you to part with nearly 25% of this, to try and lock men into overpriced Fusion cartridges.

From a retailer perspective, given they specialise in FMCG - Fast Moving Consumer Goods - well, I can't believe they'll be over the moon about this when the promotion ends.  The FSDU's I saw over the weekend were rammed full with product (we were pretty low on stocks in most retailers) as even at this 'bargain' price, our Azor (when it goes back to 'fair at full price' in a few weeks will still be LESS than Gillette's deal.  Enter SMCG's (Slow Moving Consumer Goods).  Ouch.

Plus, you won't have to drop nearly £20 to enjoy the months of King of Shaves shaving with our Award Winning razor, the Azor.

Interesting times - watch this space - and again, HUGE uplifts for King of Shaves Azor over the weekend, more great reviews for Azor at dooyoo.co.uk and our TV commercial Shaveolution (Bend the Rules) featuring our very own Elvis Stubbles is giving 'Wilkinette' troubles.  People asking after Mat Le Star's soundtrack 'Lust and Charm' too - available on Soundcloud, downloadable MP3 coming soon I suspect.

In just the past week, we sold nearly 30,000 Azor razors complete with 3 Endurium cartridges and nigh on 80,000 Endurium replacement cartridges (each cartridge lasts 3-4 weeks) - a remarkable 240,000 weeks worth of King of Shaves shaving!

And this against huge, HUGE promotional activity by Gillette, who when even on promotion are more expensive than our 'fair at full price' (and we're currently on half-price!)

And we continue to get great feedback for our Shaveolution TV advert!  Look out for it on Sky and many other channels...very happy chap today :-)

You know the saying, "the bigger they are, the harder they fall".  Well, I sit writing this as our new TV ad for the Azor, Shaveolution (Bend the Rules) has debuted online here, here, here and here.

Tomorrow, Flight 1 of our TV ad campaign kicks off, 8.53pm UK time on Sky Sports (during the Champions League half time slot) and then rolls extensively across Sky, ITV 2, ITV 4, Dave & Dave Ja Vu.

This £1m+ above the line promotion ties in with extensive retailer promotions for the Azor, which started last week at Sainsbury's across the UK.  By the end of the first week of this promotion with this single retailer, we expect to have sold more Azors (and importantly, more replacement cartridges) than all retailers together in the previous weeks.

So, is it 'Gamer over' for Fusion (Gamer is Gillette's latest 'name' for its Fusion 5 blade razor).  Well, as I have blogged repeatedly over the past 15 months, it is our intention to genuinely disrupt & game change the system razor market, firstly in the UK, then

world-wide.  Gillette Fusion is an over-bladed, over-packaged and over-priced system razor - a product of one company's desire to shave more, with more, for more.  As they pointed out in a recent press ad, it has taken them 8 years to 'get it together' - the product being conceived (most likely) in the early noughties, but now, as we're poised to enter the second decade of the 21st century, well - what went on then, isn't likely to be what happens now.

Here at King of Shaves, we're committed to giving men a genuine performance alternative to 'Wilkinette' - a choice that allows them to 'choose different & shave better' - and ultimately, shave closer, longer, for less.

We're picking up the pace in this race for shaving's thought (and product) leadership and I for one am really looking forward to the next few months!  Many thanks to the King of Shaves Smarketing team led by Tim Wright, ably assisted by Jenny Pitt and the talented smarketers working alongside them, from our ad agency, Hooper Galton to media & PR specialists Brian Maclaurin Associates & The Communications Store.

As the ad soundtrack says, "We're striking out in a different direction..."  And I, for one, hope to have you with us on the next phase of our journey for King of Shaves - the future of shaving!

King of Shaves Poised To Unleash A Perfect Storm For The Azor System Razor. (original blog posting)

After months of planning, tomorrow sees us unleash three months of sustained advertising and trade promotion for our Azor system razor.

Tomorrow, both the Azor AND replacement cartridges (4 & 8 pack) are HALF PRICE at Sainsbury's across the UK, with all other major retailers including Asda, Boots, Morrison's, Superdrug, Tesco & Wilkinson's following suit in short order. Please note - our cartridges are HALF PRICE - something neither Gillette nor Wilkinson Sword have ever done, or likely will dare, do. Reason being is the massive profit margin in cartridges like Gillette Fusion Power (94%) funds Gillette's huge ad-spend and other marketing activities, including keeping 3 highly paid sportsmen on their payroll.

We're aiming to make our Azor system handle the Number 1 selling system razor handle by the year end - at just £2.44, it'll be great value (far better value than the 'overpriced at half price Gillette Fusion Gamer handle for example) and even better, with our replacement blades, you'll be able to get the King of Shaves at a fraction of Gillette's ransom.

To bring our great brand to the millions of men who are yet to experience the King of Shaves, on 29th September - this time next Tuesday - our TV advertisement makes its debut on Sky Sports, and then rolls onto other Sky channels as well as ITV 2, ITV4, Dave & Dave Ja Vu. We have over 400 slots lined up, starting off with the Champion's League games next week - we'll be in London to celebrate the ad's debut at a secret location - so looking forward to that.

The King of Shaves Azor is now in 90% (approximate) distribution across all major retailers in the UK - so should be easily available for you to buy, although when news of our promotion hits websites like Martyn Lewis' 'MoneySavingExpert.com' - well - who knows what will happen - everyone loves a bargain, and we've been building up our stocks for weeks, in order that we won't (hopefully) go out of stock.

This is an incredibly exciting time for the team and I at King of Shaves, a huge amount of hard work has gone into integrating our £1m above the line TV spend with a very substantial offer for the consumer to get you trialling our Azor, and converting to it - the next three months or so are going to be hugely exciting for us as we unleash our 'Perfect Storm' of Great Product, Great Performance & Great Price into the UK market.

Again, we're on promotion at all Sainsbury's across the UK tomorrow - half price on King of Shaves Azor AND King of Shaves replacement cartridges (4's & 8's).

We're evolving shaving, for better, FOREVER.