Dive Brief:
- Q-tips is trying to make a bigger splash with its marketing through the introduction of jumbo-sized versions of its cotton swabs and an accompanying digital-first campaign, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
- The nearly 6-foot-long swabs, called Quge-tips, feature in a parody of TV infomercials where a fictional spokesperson, Bruce Neptune, shows off a variety of applications, from dusting off heaps of pollen to cleaning up a crime scene. Quge-tips are available at a website for $35 a piece while supplies last.
- Q-tips has enlisted the help of other brands, including Doritos and Goodyear, and content creators to get the word out on social media. This is the first work from the Elida Beauty-owned brand’s two new agencies of record as Q-tips looks to better engage millennials and Gen Z.
Dive Insight:
The over 100-year-old Q-tips brand is embracing a “go big or go home” attitude with Quge-tips, part of a revamped marketing strategy developed with AORs 3Headed Monster and Jackson Spalding. As with many legacy packaged goods marketers, Q-tips is shifting more of its focus to digital and social media while enacting stunts that could spark online discussion for their sheer ridiculousness. While the Quge-tips execution may be over the top, Q-tips claims the concept is rooted in real consumer insights.
“Our customers use Q-tips swabs in many different ways throughout their days — from beauty routines to home repairs — and many have even asked for bigger, longer, more task-specific cotton swabs,” said Olga Alpeter, marketing director at Q-tips, in a press statement. “Quge-tips is our lighthearted take on that feedback, celebrating creativity and reminding everyone that even a classic can still surprise you.”
Humor is the driving force behind the Quge-tips work, which is anchored in content that cribs from the daytime infomercial playbook, along with Adult Swim fixtures like Tim & Eric. Videos open on Neptune, an energetic spokesperson in the Billy Mays mold, asking “Has this ever happened to you?” before depicting increasingly far-fetched scenarios where Quge-tips could be of assistance. The ad also alludes to Neptune’s tortured personal life as an actress seemingly portraying his estranged wife tosses her wedding band into a mop bucket and declares that she has fallen out of love. Later, Neptune forlornly notes that “nights are hardest” while sitting on the edge of a bed alongside a Quge-tip in a blonde wig.
Quge-tips’ website description takes a similar page from unhinged online culture. The novelty product boasts of being 6 feet tall when it is actually several inches shorter, a reference to height inflation by men on dating apps. The Quge-tips website also carries sold-out goods such as a “Best of Bruce and the Brass Boys” brass-instruments album and the discarded wedding band from the infomercial. “Actually I’m not getting rid of this,” the product page for the latter reads. Quge-tips, which the brand teased extensively on its social pages ahead of their Dec. 9 debut, are launching in time for the holiday gifting season.
Q-tips has also partnered with brands like Doritos and Goodyear to further extend its reach. In a video collaboration with Doritos, a regular cotton swab and one of the PepsiCo brand’s chips are mixed together in water to create giant versions of each. Goodyear’s contribution sees the company’s signature blimp and tires cleaned by a Quge-tip.
Q-tips kickstarting a bigger marketing push follows the sale of parent Elida Beauty to private investment firm Yellow Wood Partners last year. Unilever previously owned the beauty and personal care portfolio that also includes brands like Noxzema and Brylcreem.
