Shavetopia: Philips Norelco’s Bold Move into Roblox

Checkout Shavetopia in this short video, highlighting how we brought Philips Norelco's brand to Roblox.

ROLE: CONCEPT • EDIT • DESIGN • ANIMATION

Overview

Philips Norelco, a leader in male grooming, aimed to connect with millennial and Gen Z audiences by leveraging the digital landscape of Roblox. The goal was to create an innovative, interactive experience that reflected the brand’s values of personalization and self-expression.

Challenge

Philips Norelco needed to stand out in the competitive shave & groom category by:

• Engaging younger audiences in an authentic, creative way.

• Utilizing Roblox to offer users a space for digital identity exploration.

Solution

We developed Shavetopia, a dynamic world within Roblox where users could:

• Experiment with 40 unique facial hairstyles created in partnership with Movember.

• Ride the flying OneBlade to creatively demonstrate grooming techniques in a topiary garden.

• Navigate custom portals to popular Roblox games, creating a seamless, interconnected experience.

Results

• 242,000 organic visits in the first 24 hours.

• Over one million total visits within two months.

• 3,770 virtual facial hairstyles sold in the first month, supporting Movember.

• 967,000 organic social engagements across Discord, TikTok, and YouTube.

Shavetopia not only became a top 500 experience on Roblox but also set a new standard for digital brand engagement, solidifying Philips Norelco’s presence in the virtual world.

Key Contributions:

1. Strategic Conceptualization of Roblox Game Experience: 🎯

• Picture our creative team around a virtual circle, sharing nostalgic games from our childhood. For Jessie Gontko and me, it was Donkey Kong, Rampage, and Mario Kart. Our junior creatives connected with Minecraft and Pokémon. The challenge was to include Philips Norelco products in a game without ruining the fun. After several brainstorming sessions, we had a breakthrough—we suggested a game mechanic where players earn rewards by completing shaving challenges, merging the brand’s key message with the excitement of the game.

2. User Experience Leadership in Game Development: 🕹️

• One of the most enjoyable parts of this project was playing the game. Before this, I had never used Roblox and had some embarrassing moments learning the keyboard commands to move my character. However, we wanted our game to perform well for our community. It was important to play and find gameplay issues and bugs, and offer feedback to improve user experience with our partners, MINDTRIC, who were developing the game.

3. Video Edit for Launch Video on Social Media: 🎥

• After hours of gameplay, it was time to make a launch video trailer for our game to share on Philips' social media. I edited the trailer to capture the game's essence and build excitement and interest among our audience.

4. Cross-Functional Collaboration on Social Media Strategy: 🤝

• Worked with account and creative teams to create and carry out a social media plan for the Shavetopia game launch. This included making extra social content to boost the game's visibility and keep brand messaging consistent across all platforms.

5. Animation of Shavetopia Logo for Multi-Platform Use: ✨

• The logo animation was essential to our game. Players could also use Shavetopia to jump to three popular partner Roblox games – Liberty County: Emergency Response, Retail Tycoon 2, and Tower Defense Simulator through custom portals. It only made sense to animate the logo as a portal which matched the game’s theme perfectly.

Credits:

Client: Philips Norelco

Agency: FleishmanHillard

Partner: Mindtric

Global Platforms Lead FH: Jared Carneson

Creative Director FH: Jessie Gontko

Creative Director Mindtric: Chad Garcia

Creative Director Mindtric: Rick Garcia

Design/Animation: Nicole Finateri

Editor: Nicole Finateri

Associate Editor FH: Andrea Valdez