Dr. Squatch — the digitally native men’s grooming brand that inspired “Big Bricc Energy” with hypnosis and recently insured Nick Cannon’s family jewels for $10 million — is back with its latest cheeky campaign. This time around, Dr. Squatch has enlisted actor Sydney Sweeney for a series of videos that help launch the brand’s natural, moisturizing, scent-forward body wash products, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
The “Euphoria” and “Anyone But You” star appears as a “Body Wash Genie” in a three video spots, while a forthcoming one features Sweeney in a bathtub and includes a call-to-action around an 800 number. All the spots play off Sweeney’s sex symbol status as she suggestively offers to grant wishes, noting how “guys only want one thing.”
Beyond having one of Hollywood’s fastest rising stars in its designed-to-go-viral spots, working with Sweeney could help catapult the brand to a new level of cultural relevance, explained John Ludeke, the brand’s vice president of marketing.
“She’s not only a rising star, but someone who resonates across broad demographics – especially with women who are often the ones purchasing grooming products for their male partners or kids,” Ludeke said in emailed comments. “We always want to be a meaningful contributor to culture, and having her personality drive this message for us through marketing is huge.”
In this case, the Body Wash Genie helps engage the majority of men who are unaware of the ingredients in their current body wash — many of which are classified by the FDA as a synthetic detergent, according to the brand. The new spots are in line with Dr. Squatch’s previous marketing that delivers brand truths through suggestive, boundary-pushing humor.
“We look for brand partners who are down to have fun, break convention, and be a little bit irreverent – all while taking their role of educating consumers seriously,” Ludeke said. “Dr. Squatch focuses on authenticity and humor and Sydney definitely fits the bill.”
The campaign will be supported with a robust media plan and will run across linear and connected TV, digital video including premium YouTube, streaming audio and podcasts, and paid social media across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest.
“Because we’re digitally native but also have a retail presence, it’s always important for us to balance different audiences and outcomes,” Ludeke said of the media plan. “Our strategy is tailored to adjust short-term optimization signals to accommodate longer term sales goals for each media channel.”
The plan will help balance the distribution of the playful, “I Dream of Jeannie”-esque ads with the more steamy bathtub spot (reminiscent of Margot Robbie’s fourth wall-breaking turn in “The Big Short”). Deploying a variety of entertaining content can help keep the brand’s audience engaged.
“The reality is that most advertising content is wallpaper and no one wants to see the same boring ads over and over again,” Ludeke said. “Often as brands grow, they use their additional resources to spam people even more with content that lacks excitement. We focus on entertaining our audience, which requires us to find ways to tell a variety of stories from different angles that ladder up to the same main message.”
