McCann creates TV commercial on Gilette Vector Plus  ( November '12,2003, ET)

The Gillette Company is all set to break a multi-media campaign around the new Gillette Vector. Though Gillette's other products like Gillette 7'O Clock, Gillette Duracell, and Gillette Mach3 are handled by O&M — the Gillette Vector Plus television commercial (TVC) is created by McCann.

O&M bagged the entire Gillette account this March after a global re-alignment, which forced McCann to give up the Gillette account. But for this particular TVC, Gillette preferred to use its old agency.

The new 60–second TVC (with shorter edits of 30 and 10 seconds) on the theme of marriage, breaks on November 12. The print campaign and outdoor will follow soon. The new commercial is being translated in regional languages. It will be simultaneously aired in four southern language along with Marathi, Gujurati, Panjabi and Bengali.

WPP’s Mindshare is handling the media. Earlier, Universal McCann, part of McCann-Erickson WorldGroup, handled the media. OMD had handled a majority of Gillette’s global media, all of it in North America and Europe. Universal McCann worked on media in Latin America and Asia Pacific.

Last September, Gillette Co awarded its estimated $600 million global media business to WPP Group’s MindShare, following a keenly contested review which involved Omnicom Group’s Optimum Media Direction (OMD), and Universal McCann, part of McCann-Erickson WorldGroup.

Gillette Vector Plus is projected by the Gillette Company as the product of the future for the Indian mass blade and razor market.

According to Regional business director Manoj Kumar, "Gillette Vector plus has been designed keeping in mind the shaving habits of a number of Indian consumers. The new Vector plus comes with anti-clogging push clean technology."

Gillette Vector plus comes at Rs 49 for a pack of razor with one cartridge. The two cartridges are priced at Rs 35 while the four-cartridge pack is priced at Rs 65. The company will make available Gillette Vector plus across its one-lakh outlets spread in 3,600 towns.

Ad spends in first nine months of the year stood at Rs 21.1 crore (7.7 per cent of net sales). The company is likely to increase adspend in Q4 and the year 2004.