Kevin Hart is known for having a smile that instantly grabs your attention, and Brüush is hoping enlisting him for a new campaign will generate similar levels of awareness to find a place in the increasingly competitive oral care space.

The Vancouver-based DTC electric toothbrush brand has a series of videos with the comedian vamping about things like the brand’s odd, hard to pronounce name, or how he’s getting everyone he knows a Brüush – even his toothless dad.

https://youtu.be/K37wvZqPHhc

Aside from hitching the brand to a funny A-list celebrity known for his smile, Brüush took a humorous approach to be fun and vibrant in an oral care space that tends to lack that in its advertising.

Marketing in the oral care space has, for a long time, been very product-focused, zeroing in on functionality and utility. Aneil Manhas, CEO and founder of Brüush, attributes this to the domination of legacy brands like Oral B and Phillips, which have been successful while keeping their marketing the same for a long time.

Brüush is looking to break through the noise in a space that includes those dominant veteran brands, as well as other startups like Quip, and hopes it will resonate with its millennial target by using a recognizable celebrity, especially on channels they use, like Instagram and YouTube.

“If you take a look at our website, our colour palate, the way we position ourselves from a copy perspective, our ads and partnership with Kevin, I think all of that stuff in the oral care space is unique,” Manhas says.

The brand isn’t only relying on Kevin Hart and this campaign to generate buzz – it has also signed partnerships with influencers like The Social co-host Elaine Lui (a.k.a Lainey Gossip) and Katherine Garbarino, founder of the health and wellness website “Girls Living Well.”

The influencer posts reveal a key element of Brüush’s marketing strategy, which it is using to power its goal of growing across North America by taking share away from legacy oral care brands, as opposed to other DTC electric startups. In Lui’s post, she talks about how she was one of 85% of North Americans who still use a manual toothbrush, citing things like the time it took in a busy schedule or not knowing when to change the brush head – all factors she addressed with Brüush, through its efficient electric brush and a subscription-based model of three brush heads delivered every six months.

Even though consumers are staying home, not prioritizing their hygiene as much as they would going to work, and are being more mindful of their dollars due to the pandemic, Manhas says there are “push-pull” factors to these dynamics. With operations at dental offices disrupted, consumers are taking their oral care into their own hands. As for the price, given that people are wary about or cannot go to the dentist as often as they would, the investment in an electric toothbrush may seem viable.

There is paid digital and social for the campaign, which was handled by Jungle Media. Behaviour created the campaign, while August handled the brand strategy.