COVID 19 for the Male Grooming Industry - Boon or Bane?
#EverybodyWinsWithUstraa: A contest to promote Ustraa’s new range of Perfumes
By Rachit Juneja
Feb. 22, 2021
“Ustraa represents a man with a ‘playful swagger’, which Siddhant Chaturvedi clearly emanates through his personality.” - Sanshrut Khanna, Marketing Manager, Ustraa
Ustraa is the men's grooming brand by Happily Unmarried. They create products, grooming content, and everything else that can help men look and feel good about themselves. Their products adhere to the highest quality standards and are made without using Sulphate, Paraben, or harmful chemicals.
Ustraa launched #EverybodyWinsWithUstraa in December 2020, along with their Brand Ambassador - Siddhant Chaturvedi. We got in touch with their Marketing Manager - Mr. Sanshrut Khanna to learn more about the association and here’s what we found out:
On the objective of the campaign:
“We did extensive research on our TG and we found that two things they associated most with were - travel and music. As we were launching two new perfumes, we used this research to our benefit as we believed resonance and relatability with our TG would be maximum if we incorporated their interest in our campaign. So, for #EverybodyWinsWithUstraa, we inaugurated a contest to promote our new perfumes - Malt and Insignia. The winners for the contest would win exciting prizes like a Royal Enfield Bike, or Leaf Headphones - thus incorporating the theme of music and travel.”
On Celebrity Association with Sidhant Chaturvedi:
“Siddhant Chaturvedi is the Brand Ambassador for Ustraa. We believe he resonates very strongly with existing and prospective TG. Involving Siddhant was more of an expansion activity for the brand, which is why we involved ourselves in a long-term association with him. We are a new age men’s grooming brand, and Siddhant Chaturvedi is considered to be the face of the future, so our association with him works aligns seamlessly and we aspire to grow together, in many ways. Along with that, Ustraa represents a man with a ‘playful swagger’, which Siddhant Chaturvedi clearly emanates through his personality.”
Journey through COVID 19:
“As for every other business, COVID 19 hit us hard as well. Being a part of the Male Grooming Industry which is not the Personal Care Giant the Female Grooming Industry is, we took a step back to figure things out and re-plan our objectives. Apart from that, we realised the need of the hour and launched products like sanitizers and disinfectant sprays, which worked out pretty well for us. Also, being a small closely-knit team, a lot of our groundbreaking ideas used to come from discussions, so those got slightly restricted with the concept of working remotely. However, we, as a team have been working very hard and we are thankful to be able to reach our Pre-Covid numbers again. Lastly, owing to COVID 19, the online market, in general, witnessed a surge so it has been a boon in that case.”
COVID 19 for the Male Grooming Industry:
“I am of the belief that men indulge themselves into grooming and taking care of their skin either when they’re always on the go and that makes their skin impure and dirty or when they need to go out and look well-groomed. During the phase of COVID, both these options were completely cut out for men, the need for male grooming actually dropped - with Perfumes and Styling Products taking the biggest hit as we entered April because they are more connected with outdoor activities. However, thankfully over the last quarter, we’ve actually seen a strong hike in the offtakes for both categories.”
What is one recent trend in Celebrity Association Campaigns that you like is here to stay?
“Brands have started associating with a number of celebrities in one go. Earlier, if a brand had a brand ambassador, they wouldn’t associate with other celebrities. The entire trend of influencer marketing has given brands the opportunity and outlook to not be associated with just one influencer/celebrity at a time. This helps brands understand what works well for them and what doesn’t, so their future collaborations are taken care of. In addition to that, celebrities too have become more accommodating and the same is applicable for them - to figure out what works best for them and their audiences.“
On Ustraa’s plans for the coming financial year:
“We, as a brand, aspire to involve ourselves in more influencer marketing activities, as it has shown great results for us. In the past, we have mostly concentrated on advertising our products on different platforms like Facebook. YouTube, etc. Now, with Influencer Marketing we have the option of building the category that we want to build - creating buzz for our new categories while supplementing our Advertising for existing ones, so it will be a strong clutch for us, moving forward.”
Conclusively, as evident from Sheeko’s Activity Graph and Brandscore Ratings, Ustraa has been considerably active on digital platforms in the past year, but since the inception of their #EverybodyWinsWithUstraa Campaign, there has been a significant increase in their numbers.
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