For Father’s Day 2019 and 2020, the Gillette team were challenged by the client to put the brand at the heart of an important moment in the year. To do this, the team created an emotive film with former professional footballer, broadcaster and father, Ian Wright.

We worked with the H+K Data and Analytics team on a piece of social listening to identify key themes in the Father’s Day conversation. This led to the insight that there was a growing conversation of stories around those who grow up without a traditional father at home and therefore seek to celebrate the role models who have helped them become the best versions of themselves on Father’s Day.

To bring this to life, we identified Ian Wright as the perfect role model to work with, inspired by the open and honest conversations he’s had about the people in his life who have encouraged him to be the best he can be. The film highlighted Ian’s journey and celebrated the role models that had played an important part in his successes, featuring a call to action for everyone to thank the role models in their lives, no matter who they may be, on Father’s Day.

In 2019 the fully integrated campaign, which lived on owned, earned and shared channels, drove a +25% positive shift in sentiment, 500k+ video views and 100+ pieces of earned coverage at launch.

Due to the film’s success in 2019, and the challenges around creating new content in 2020 in light of COVID-19, we chose to create a new edit from unseen footage that we’d captured in 2019. The new 1-minute edit, created for owned and earned channels, built on the wider campaign messaging, and gave the brand another opportunity to be part of the Father’s Day conversation. In 2020, the film generated over 22,513 combined views on Gillette owned channels, and over 38,000 on Ian Wright’s Instagram channel.