CREATIVE SHOWCASE

Firefox compatible

Client: Sharps Barber Brigade
Creative Agency: Wexley School for Girls, LLC; Seven2 Interactive; eROI, Inc.

The campaign was designed to launch a new line of men's shaving and lotion products into Target stores nationwide and to motivate women to turn their guys onto a new experience in "prep" vs. grooming. Shaving is the most likely doorway leading to use of other Barber Brigade products. Also, women do a vast majority of the purchasing in the category. First -- we landed on the "Sharpsmen" concept. Sharpsmen are converts who are poised to champion a brand whose time is overdue. We did a fairly extensive casting session of regular guys, just like those we want to use our product. A photo shoot later, we had the groundwork for the campaign. Unfortunately, the regular guys didn't have the right voices for what we needed, so another casting session and some professional voice talent later, we had some sound. The goal was to create a fun way the target audience could spend some time with the site, camped in front of our ambassadors and their messaging.

Basically, we needed to get a website up in time to give people who were searching for the brand a place to find out more. A smart and playful site, almost as cool as the brand itself, was posted a bit ahead of schedule.

The site was based on art/designs provided by Wexley; Seven2 Interactive built out the Barber Brigade site, the sub pages and the Sharpsmen "Send to a friend" email experience in Flash version 7.0.  This included incorporating animation, audio/sound implementation/optimization, development for the "Send to a Friend" magnetic poetry and all other facets of site production. The site also has gone through a search engine optimization checklist, which increases the site's chances of being recognized on some of the most popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Also included in the site HTML/URL are Meta Tags and a FAVICON (favorites icon image).

As an added feature, we introduced the individual characters to a few social networking communities, notably MySpace.com, not so much as a traffic-driving device, but more as a way for people to learn more about the brand. It's a place where people can spend five, ten, twenty minutes with our characters, getting to know them, laugh with them, learn about them.

Since the campaign's launch, sales in Target stores have increased and we've had hundreds of messages sent in just a few days since the site's inception.
-- Cal McAllister, principal, Wexley School for Girls

Creative Showcase is meant to be a teaching tool and an inspiration for our readers. We comment only on creative that we really love. Our panelists discuss what makes it great, but if they feel there were missed opportunities that would have made it better, we invite them to mention those. And finally, we seek out a wide range of opinions that reflect the marketplace for the panel, in order to provide constructive, useable feedback for agencies, clients and others involved in these creative pieces.

This was a really fun site. In fact, it is probably the most enjoyable site I have been to in a while. The graphics, tone and engagement level were perfect. I found myself associating this bit of nostalgia with the brand and it almost immediately endeared me to it. And I hate to shave. Ask my mom.

The barber chair transitions are ingenious and quite fun. I could see myself using that device as a stress reliever. I also liked the book as a visual metaphor. Again, it played to the nostalgia in a way that truly brought me into the brand. The Sharpsmen added  a fun and irreverent element and all the rollover sounds were completely spot on, especially the duck. All in all, I loved the whimsical nature of the piece. It put a smile on my face and enveloped me into the Sharps brand.

I may start shaving more.
-- j barbush, associate creative director, interactive, RPA 

An interesting site that is seemingly minimal in design, but packed with a lot of interactive gems. I enjoyed the old fashioned barber shop setting, which compliments the tone of the Sharps brand. The site approaches and informs in a humorous way. I had no technical difficulties with the site and enjoyed the many layers of exploring the site and learning about the brand. There was no video component or viral element -- that I could find; they would have augmented the interactive element. However, I found the overall site successful in maintaining a fun, engaging creative experience-- with razor sharp wit!
-- Roger Park, news editor, iMedia