Humour in advertising is a potent force. Countless studies have shown that if done well, it can drive brand recall, engagement and—ultimately—sales. But in the early noughties, the number of humorous ads started to decline, with notable (and understandable) drops around the time of the global financial crisis and Covid-19 pandemic.
One US company that never lost its funny bone is men’s personal care brand Dr. Squatch. Launched in 2013 by Jack Haldrup—primarily to discover an all natural soap product to help him manage a skin condition called psoriasis—Dr. Squatch now sells soap, deodorants, shampoos and other toiletries marketed to men across the world, including Australia.
The direct to consumer business makes annual sales well north of $400 million (A$600 million) and is being acquired by FMCG giant Unilever in a deal said to be worth $1.5 billion (A$2.5 billion).
Fabian Garcia, the head of Unilever’s personal care division, said the brand had built a loyal following with “clever digital engagement strategies”.
Humour, authenticity and creating a loyal following have been as important to Dr. Squatch’s success has some of its unique scents, such as Sydney Sweeney’s bathwater.
B&T caught up with Dr. Squatch’s SVP of global marketing, John Ludeke, ahead of its recent ‘Manlandia’ campaign to find out more about the Dr. Squatch marketing playbook, some of its hilarious ads, what the Unilever acquisition means and what brands often get wrong when using humour in advertising.
Ludeke explains that the first breakthrough marketing moment for the company came from a 2018 video ‘Dr. Squatch – Natural Soap for Men’. It starred James Schrader that has been viewed on YouTube 122 million times (see video below).
“When we first started running social ads, the goal was not to necessarily be the funniest brand in grooming, but the goal was always to wake people up,” said Ludeke, who joined the business in 2022 after working at energy drink Monster for nearly a dozen years.
“The category as a whole had very low emotional engagement and guys weren’t really paying attention to it. So instead of talking about natural ingredients, we talked about ‘you’re not a dish, you’re a man’. And instead of really chasing trends, we decided to create ads that felt like skits your buddy would send to you, while still obviously focusing on the product benefits as well.”
Speaking in a language that blokes can relate to, while entertaining and educating—which Dr. Squatch calls ‘edutainment’—has allowed the brand to cut through to its target audience, particularly at a time and in a category that usually plays it safe.
Ludeke said that from early on, Dr. Squatch’s marketing playbook has been a willingness to take risks that entertain and engage its target audience of millennial and Gen Z men.
Humour has been central to its success, and is hard baked into its marketing DNA. Although Dr. Squatch works with external agency partners to bring creative ideas to life, a lot of the big ideas are conceived by Dr. Squatch’s in-house marketing team, which Ludeke said is granted a lot of trust from senior leadership.
“In a lot of larger organisations, the marketing teams don’t do much of the creative work; they’re more focused on classical brand management and managing the P&L and/or innovation. Our team spends a lot of time on actually dealing with the creative and dealing with the campaign concepts and ideation,” he said.
This razor sharp focus on creativity allows its marketers to become closer to Dr. Squatch’s customer base. This allows the brand to be more targeted and agile with messaging, while building a community that “rallies behind your brand, your products and cares about your mission”.
Dr. Squatch also invests a more into great content that is engaging and organically shared widely rather than “spending on mediocre content and a ton of ad dollars to spam people”.
Ludeke said these tactics are far more effective than bombarding people with logos in the first two seconds of content that eventually “gets lost in the ether”.
Strong organic content and growing a community of brand advocates is a strategy that has worked well for other brands, such Yeti and AG1, according to Aussie CMO Paulie Dery, who recently spoke to B&T.
What brands get wrong
Being funny is not easy, and Ludeke observes some common mistakes by brands.
“Often, a lot of brands try to use humour, but they confuse being funny with being gimmicky,” he said. “What often happens, especially as you’re dealing with a larger, more bureaucratic environment internally, is that a lot of great or fun ideas can get watered down to the point where they’re not that interesting.
“A lot of brands also forget why they’re doing something and it doesn’t ultimately tie back to their core message. Just doing something fun and wacky often isn’t enough. You need to do it in a way that feels authentic to your brand, and has purpose behind it.”
‘My favourite ad’
There have been many memorable Dr. Squatch ads in recent years, but for Ludeke, one stands out: an ad starring Sydney Sweeney to launch a limited edition soap called ‘Bathwater Bliss’ (see above) that earned plenty of headlines and went viral, but also attracted huge global fanfare to the men’s grooming brand.
Ludeke said the aim was to market a product that smells like natural body wash rather than rival artificially scented products that are classified by the US Food and Drug Administration as synthetic detergents.
Dr. Squatch’s focus was bringing the soap to market in a “fun, exciting way” that would encourage men, and also their partners, to understand the benefits of the product and why it is unique.
“Sydney was a great partner because she’s very popular with women. She’s very popular with men. She grew up in a household that really values natural products and healthy living and the great outdoors,” Ludeke said.
“She was very involved, has great ideas, and is a real creative powerhouse in her own right. So it was wonderful to co-create and collaborate with her on those concepts, and then we did the production with an outside partner and launched it.”
Ludeke said that the Sweeney campaign delivered strong media and sales results for the brand.
Closer to home, Dr. Squatch partnered with former Wallabies star Nick ‘Honey Badger’ Cummins for its Australian launch (see above).
Ludeke said Australia is fertile ground for the brand because Aussies appreciate natural products and healthy living.
“We wanted to really craft something that would feel unique to the market, and not just like a plug and play of the US brand trying to do the same thing in Australia,” he said.
Cummins, who also fronts Tradie underwear ads and has starred in a number of outdoor TV shows (as well as The Bachelor Australia), was an ideal fit for Dr. Squatch because “he’s a great guy who shared our mission to inspire and educate men to be happier and healthier”.
Ludeke said the launch ad, ‘Formulated for Real Blokes’, helped Dr. Squatch rise to among the top three brands in the personal washing category at Woolworths, and there are now plans to stock the product range at Coles.
This month, Cummins starred in the latest work for the brand that takes him to the fictional world of ‘Manlandia’ (see below), where men can be their “natural manly selves”.
In the spot, he remarks that “I can do anything I want” as he rides a motorcycle with a BBQ attached to it.
The aim of the ad is to “make guys feel comfortable to just be their natural manly selves” and it comes after research that men have been having a tough time.
“What we’ve identified is that there’s actually a bit of a malaise amongst guys more broadly. For men, general depression rates are increasing, male suicides at an all time high and a lot of guys just feel like they’ve kind of been left behind,” Ludeke said.
“So what we’ve been focusing on is how can we do something that really helps to support this idea of positive masculinity, and do it in a way that feels authentic to the Dr. Squatch brand.
“We hope this is going to be a rallying cry for guys to feel confident and inspired, and empowered to live happier, healthier lives.”
Unilever: ‘The best possible partner’
Unilever’s acquisition of Dr. Squatch, which is expected to conclude later this year, aims to provide the FMCG multinational with a high performing brand in the men’s grooming category.
In announcing the move, Garcia said that Unilever planned to scale the business globally. Although it is too early to know what Unilever ownership will mean for the brand, Ludeke said that the owner of Dove, Lynx, Rexona and Lux is “probably the best partner that we can have”.
“By working with Unilever, we’ll be able to impact in a positive way even more people. We will be able to access more product innovation, and support for distribution and marketing—the sort of resources, tools and insights that smaller companies don’t have access to. It should be a lot of fun and a great next step in the journey to help people make the switch to natural products.”
When asked whether he was concerned a listed multinational corporation might try to tone down Dr. Squatch’s humour and marketing playbook, Ludeke was equivocal: “I don’t think so.”
“These days, authenticity is valued in the marketplace and when the announcement came out, there was so much positive conversation around it being a great acquisition by Unilever that fit so well into their portfolio,” Ludeke said.
“What we bring to the table is an ability to really connect with millennials and Gen Z in a very meaningful way that’s often difficult for brands to do across the board, whether you’re coming from a large organisation or a smaller one.
“We’re pretty confident that Unilever really values the Dr. Squatch brand and will continue to support the growth and allow us to do what we do best.”
Dr. Squatch is a brand that is comfortable in its own skin, and understands and values its community of loyal Squatchlings. It also appreciates the power of collaborations, whether that is with the comedian James Schrader, the actor Sydney Sweeney or even sports stars such as Nick Cummins and Mike Tyson.
In fact, when B&T asked Ludeke if ‘Moisture’ Mike Tyson (see below) would have been too fresh and slippery for Jake Paul had he collaborated with Dr. Squatch before their Netflix fight, Ludeke had no doubts: “If we had collaborated pre-fight, I think Mike would have won”. At least perceptions about the fight and its result would have been much cleaner.
Collaborating alongside Unilever, Dr. Squatch hopes to take its irreverent, disruptor brand (and marketing playbook) to new corners of the world, helping young men stay hygienic and healthy, while also having fun.
