Schick has taken the unusual step of producing a new branded reality show sans the brand. Schick’s “Clean Break” contains no product placement, no logos, and no brand barriers to accessing the content. The only time the viewer is made aware of Schick’s involvement is through the occasional “Presented by Schick Hydro” overlay going in and out of breaks. So why invest a significant portion of your marketing budget into a product that hardly markets your brand? Schick Group Brand Director Brad Harrison recently spoke with Sparksheet about their unique approach to content.
You recently launched Clean Break, a six-episode reality series, to promote the Schick Hydro razor on Fuel TV (and online). But you never actually feature the product on the show. Why is that?
When you watch the show in the way it’s being presented there’s little doubt it’s being brought to you by Schick Hydro, but the branding isn’t interrupting your viewing experience.
Every time Clean Break cuts to commercial, “Presented by Schick Hydro” appears. With the outros you get a promotional message. Then we put three commercials into the half-hour time slot. So, in that half-hour we get 11 quality brand mentions.
We did a bunch of research and guys told us that if the content was heavily branded, they would be turned off.
That’s how we came to the conclusion that we didn’t need to brand it, didn’t need to put pictures of razors, didn’t need the guys to wake up in the morning and go, “Oh, I can’t wait to shave with my Schick Hydro before I go surfing today!” That would have been stilted and wrong.
