Dive Brief:
- DTC razor brand Billie on Thursday launched a new multi-platform campaign around the theme of “unexpected reasons to shave,” according to details emailed to Retail Dive.
- The brand’s online video (OLV) spots were shot to illustrate the effectiveness of its razor starter kit. Featured spots show someone preparing for a pole dancing session and another getting a lower back tattoo.
- The campaign will also run through paid social ads on YouTube; Roku; Amazon over-the-top (OTT); social channels like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok; and Captify.
Dive Insight:
The Billie campaign continues to turn to unconventional ad spots to promote its products.
In 2018, the razor brand launched “Project Body Hair,” a campaign that aimed to address the issue of women’s body hair. The brand also launched campaigns that sought to normalize pubic hair at the beach and highlight members of the LGBTQ+ community in rewritten fairy tales.
And earlier this year, Billie rolled out a campaign starring actor Jameela Jamil to highlight the launch of its new body care products. In the campaign film, Billie rewrites Julia Stiles’ “10 Things I Hate About You” poem, calling out the standards the personal care industry has manufactured and perpetuated on women for years, per the company.
In its latest campaign, Billie is “challenging the grooming status quo once again ... showing off the unexpected reasons women may choose to shave rather than the societal expectations of shaving — when smoothness really counts.”
Billie was launched in 2017 by Georgina Gooley and Jason Bravman. The DTC brand’s pitch centered around women only shaving if they wanted to and it marketed itself as the answer to the “pink tax” of companies charging a premium for women’s products versus men’s. Billie first launched as a subscription service, delivering shaving products for $9 a shipment.
The brand was among the early disruptors in the shaving category, which also included Harry’s and Dollar Shave Club. But as the brand grew, it attracted the interest of larger CPG players. In early 2020, P&G announced plans to acquire Billie. That followed Schick maker Edgewell’s announcement in May 2019 that it would acquire Harry’s for nearly $1.4 billion. However, after the Federal Trade Commission moved to block the acquisitions on the grounds of antitrust, both deals were called off by the companies.
In a turn of events, Billie in November 2021 was sold to Edgewell for $310 million in cash.
Beyond its body care launch, Billie has expanded its product assortment to include makeup wipes, wax kits, dermaplaning kits, lip balms and dry shampoo. The company in 2022 also moved into physical retail through a wholesale partnership with Walmart. The brand now also sells at retailers like Target, Amazon, Walgreens, CVS, Meijer, Kroger and H-E-B.
“Even though we were founded in 2017, this is only our second year of national omnichannel availability, and when you walk down the shave aisle, you’ll notice it’s filled with decades-old brands,” the company said in an email. “As a brand that’s newer to retail, it is important to keep investing in brand building.”
