PPB October 2020

MARKET SHARE A (Body) Positive Place To Play Gillette Venus teams with Animal Crossing to offer a wider selection of avatar skins that better reflect the diversity of the game’s players. As technology continues to present new, creative ways for brands to get in front of consumers, Gillette Venus recently took a unique approach by partnering with a widely popular video game to communicate messages of inclusivity and body positivity. The personal hygiene company’s Venus line teamed with Nintendo’s Animal Crossing —the latest version, Animal Crossing: New Horizons , released on March 20, is played by 11 million Americans, says The Guardian —as part of its “My Skin. My Way” campaign to highlight how beauty, femininity and skin have evolved since Venus was launched by Proctor & Gamble in 2001. Working with digital designer Nicole Cuddihy, Gillette Venus developed a set of “Skinclusive” avatar skins for players to choose for their Animal Crossing character that better represent the look of everyday people. Players can now select from 19 skin types, eight skin tones and 250 total combinations, and add further personalization, like freckles, tattoos, acne, scars, cellulite and skin types that are less represented, like vitiligo. To celebrate these new designs—and let players know they are available—Venus hosted “Skinclusive Summer Social” in Animal Crossing on YouTube Live on August 21. By helping to develop this new set of skins, Gillette Venus was able to get in front of millions of consumers, and a varied and sundry bunch at that. It’s a game that’s played by both men and women— women make up more than 40 percent of the game’s sales, writes Business Insider —as well as children, teens and adults in their 20s and 30s. Further, Animal Crossing: New Horizons can only be played on a Nintendo Switch, and in March during the pandemic, Nintendo Switch sales increased 63 percent over last year, according to Business Insider. Further, this latest version of the game was its best seller in the franchise’s 19-year history, with 13.41 units sold in the first six weeks of its release, according to Video Game Chronicles . By integrating this popular game into its campaign, Gillette Venus made itself visible in a unique space in front of its consumer demographic, while also communicating to them that it represents and supports the beauty of all different features and skin types. Vantage_DS / Shutterstock.com WATERCOOLER Things Have Changed A new study shows that most consumers feel their shopping and living habits are forever changed by the recent pandemic. In Melina Marchetta’s novel Saving Francesca, the main character’s cousin, Angelina, tells her, “It’ll never go back to the way it was, Frankie. But you have to make sure it goes forward.” And so it goes in the aftermath of the current pandemic. The effects of coronavirus continue to influence consumer behavior as the world adjusts to the new “normal,” and that includes changes to lifestyles and shopping habits. Only 16 percent of consumers, or fewer than two in 10 people, expect to “immediately go back to the way things were,” and most consumers are experiencing mixed feelings about the return to “normalcy,” which includes both feelings of hesitation and nervousness, and of relief and freedom. “COVID-19 Shopper and Retail Pulse Survey,” a study by international experiential advertising agency Momentum Worldwide of 1,600 consumers in the U.S., UK, Canada, Europe, Middle East and Asia—designed to gauge the long-term effects of coronavirus on consumer behavior—also found that Victoria Chudinova / Shutterstock.com continued on page 78 76 | OCTOBER 2020 | THINK