Movember has commenced.
For those not familiar with the term Movember: it is a men’s health campaign which spans the month of November. Men around the globe devote their upper lip by growing a mustache to raise awareness and money for men’s health issues (mainly prostate cancer).
I read an article over the weekend on Mashable.com http://mashable.com/2011/11/02/mr-clean-movember/ about how Procter and Gamble’s Mr. Clean has joined the Movember club and is growing a mustache on their Facebook page. The more Facebook “likes” the Mr. Clean page gets, the more his mustache will grow.
Although the concept of brands partnering up with cause marketing campaigns is nothing new, I found this particular example to be pretty fresh.
It has flaws though: just because the page is getting a “like” does not mean that people are donating to the cause. So far he has only gotten 50 dollars worth of donations according to his Movember page but yet his mustache is filling in quite nicely on Facebook.
I still think it is a successful marketing technique because it is unique and out of the ordinary. P & G jumped onto the Movember train even though it is nowhere near as prevalent as other campaigns like Breast Cancer Awareness Month which is celebrated each October.
I like that it’s interactive, quirky and trendy.
I appreciate that it’s a bit risky since it’s not completely “on brand” in terms of Mr. Clean’s current demographic. Something we value at Bolin is the concept of “Energized Awareness” for brands; this does a wonderful job of doing just that. Mr. Clean is now in the spotlight with a completely different set of people than those who currently buy their products. Maybe they won’t go out and purchase Mr. Clean products right away– but when in the cleaning products aisle at Target, the consumer will most likely remember the campaign. Hopefully they will feel a certain fondness for the brand due to the campaign and it will result in them choosing Mr. Clean vs. another brand.
Had you heard about Mr. Clean’s mustache growing initiative? What do you think of it from a marketing stand point?
