the7stars came to us with a 6-month content partnership and brand awareness uplift brief for BaByliss For Men to run from June-November 2018. While the 18-34 target audience has a heavy male skew, as per the nature of the products, we were to ensure not to exclude women who are gift purchasers. Access would be given to BaByliss for Men brand ambassador, TV personality and former International cricketer, Freddie Flintoff. Part of the campaign would look to cement the link between Freddie and the brand through engaging and relevant content while promoting their Titanium and Super ranges across clippers, trimmers and stubble and beard.

Having dabbled in previous social partnerships where product placement was too much of an obvious focus, BaByliss for Men needed something different to stand-out amongst the pack and drive through their core values. We wanted to focus on culturally relevant topics for both the male and female target audience and subtly work in the products to hit the multiple touchpoints required.

We created a 10-part video content package which focussed on core themes including dating, relatable moments for couples and singletons and grooming experiences recognisable to young men. Our 2-part activation strategy incorporated 5 sketch-based comedy videos and 5 videos featuring Freddie Flintoff alongside a series of other top influencers to boost the campaign’s relevancy across social. Each of the content strands were posted alternately across the 6-month period on Facebook and Instagram while Insta stories featured mini trailers with a swipe up to watch the full version back on Facebook. We approached product use in a more practical fashion for our pieces with Freddie and for our comedy sketches, we weaved the Titanium and Super range into the narratives and also to help drive through jokes and punchlines where appropriate.

We launched with our first comedy sketch ‘The First Date Nerves Are too Real’ to co-inside with England’s opening World Cup match against Tunisia on Monday 18^th June. The short follows a young guy trimming his beard and getting ready for what we think is a date, but the punchline reveals that he’s been prepping himself to watch the England game all along.

Sketch two ‘Beardfished’, plays on the online dating phenomenon of being ‘Catfished’. Beard obsessed Jennifer is shocked to find that David or “Shavid” as she later coins him, has in fact shaved off his beard since their initial online encounter.

The third ‘What it’s Like Dating a Guy with a Beard’ follows a young girl’s struggles with her boyfriend’s unkempt look. She goes to extreme lengths to get her man to use a BaByliss For Men Pro Beard trimmer before the product itself helps to resolve the punchline.

Sketch four ‘Beard Off’ sees two friends trying to outdo each other in the beard stakes. The comedy ensues and the competition gets more fantastical and ridiculous before they’re both beaten by a third friend with an even better beard.

The final piece ‘Inner Barbershop Monologue’ plays on the anxiety of seeing a new barber for the first time and our lead is taken on a rollercoaster of emotions before the end result.

For our first video ‘Rate my Style, we paired Freddie with TV presenter, stylist influencer and fashion columnist Darren Kennedy to give 22-year-old Lewis from Buxton a full makeover courtesy of BaByliss For Men.

We followed with ’30 Minute Beard Challenge’ which sees Freddie and Mark Ian Hoyle (aka Ladbaby, who boasts a social audience of over 4M in his own right) take to the streets of Manchester to shave as many random men’s beards as possible.

For video three ‘Beard Makeover’, Freddie finds a willing couple and completely transforms heavily bearded Anthony for girlfriend Sophie.

In the fourth instalment ‘Beard Dating’, Freddie is joined by popular influencer Jahannah James who goes through a series of rounds to choose her date with the caveat that she only gets to see each contestants beard for the entirety before the winner can be revealed.

Lastly, as an add on and aside from the rest of the campaign, we took a completely different direction for the fifth video. Freddie sits down with Jason, a representative from Mind UK to speak about mental health and depression, a cause Flintoff continues to raise awareness for.

From June – December 2018, BaByliss for Men was the #1 grooming brand in the UK across all social platforms (YT, FB and Instagram) with 23M impressions, 16M Combined Reach, 6.9M views and 102K Engagements.

Our ‘Beardfished’ sketch also took the title of the #1 social video for a UK male grooming brand across the whole of 2018.

For the duration of the Partnership, BaByliss for Men dominated the grooming category, delivering more views, shares and engagements than anyone else topping other leading brands such as Boots, Gillette, Original Source and Right Guard.