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Gillette banks on mobile to spur consumer engagement

Procter & Gamble?s Gillette recently used QR codes and social media as part of a bigger campaign to encourage consumers to take a poll.

The ?keep it smooth shaven? multichannel campaign polled women on if they preferred to kiss a clean-shaven or stubbly face. The poll was live from Jan. 28 to Feb. 13 and is now being used to help Gillette introduce new razors and shave gel..

?We included the QR code on this specific execution as opposed to a hashtag, Facebook URL or another engagement tool because the objective was strictly to drive awareness to the conversation and participation in our online quiz,? said Susan Baba, spokeswoman for Gillette, New York.

?The QR code allowed us to directly drive traffic to the mobile-compatible site, giving users a seamless transition to participating in the social experiment,? she said.

Mobile kiss
Gillette centered the campaign around the survey to help the brand introduce new sensitive-skin razors and shaving gel. 

In addition to the mobile elements, Gillette hosted events in 16 cities in the United States where couples were encouraged to kiss with and without shaving to see which they preferred.

QR codes that drove consumers to the poll ran in magazines such as New York magazine. Social media and paid ads were also used as part of the mobile marketing mix.

The online poll was live from Jan. 28 to Feb. 13 on the mobile-optimized microsite http://www.kissandtellus.com/.

Now that the campaign is over, consumers who scan the mobile bar codes are linked to the site, which features results from the campaign. Gillette?s quiz found that 85 percent of women would rather kiss a cleanly-shaven face over a face with stubble.

Consumers can also watch videos, share content and learn more about Gillette?s products.

Results so far
So far, Ms. Baba says that 34 percent of the campaign?s traffic is coming through mobile, the majority of which are smartphone users.

Traffic from smartphones has brought in 25 percent of traffic. Apple?s iPhone is the most popular device, followed by Samsung?s Galaxy S3 and Motorola?s Droid Razr 4G.

Tablets make up the remaining nine percent of mobile traffic.

Mobile users are also coming from referral traffic, such as YouTube, Facebook and the brand?s media partners.

?The K.I.S.S. national experiment was centered around our 16-city live event tour, where couples could kiss and tell after experiencing both a smooth and stubbled kiss,? Ms. Baba said.

?Given that these events were quite literally mobile in nature, we needed to make sure that our online social experiment included visitors of all devices and allowed for easy participation in the experiment,? she said.

?Furthermore, after unveiling the results, the product integration and path to purchase is also mobile-enabled, allowing users to come full circle and truly get more kisses by K.I.S.S. with our new razors.?

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York