Banana Boat Videos Target "Regular" Guys at the Gym and Baseball Games

The humorous "Defy the Sun" series is tied to the brand’s Triple Defense for Men sunscreen and has so far also racked up a combined 4.1 million views on YouTube.

Sunscreen brand Banana Boat has released a series of digital videos targeting the everyman that are running where many of those men can typically be found, including gyms and baseball stadiums.

The campaign, “Defy the Sun,” supports Banana Boat’s Triple Defense for Men product, which launched earlier this year.

The four videos showcase a variety of so-called manly scenarios, such as mowing the lawn or napping, but tackle the topics with humor. They also communicate that the product “gives men the freedom to do as they please, ultimately cementing its place as a grooming staple for the modern man that provides significant health benefits to prevent skin cancer,” the brand says.

As of July 11, the videos have a combined 4.1 million views on YouTube.

From May 19 to July 4, the videos also ran on the Zoom Fitness Media Network – which includes 235 gyms like Bally Total Fitness, Blast, Planet Fitness, LA Fitness, Gold’s Gym, World Gym, YMCA, NY Sports Clubs, and Retro Fitness – in states like California, Arizona, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.

The brand chose gyms because it was a “good contextual place to be” to target men who “are conscientious and focused on short- and long-term health,” says Carla Luca, senior brand manager at Banana Boat.

In addition, Luca says the brand will be running spots on Access Sports Media, the in-stadium MLB network, to coincide with the All-Star Game on July 15 in Minneapolis. Ads will run a week before and after the game.

“Sunscreen in general is very seasonal,” Luca says. “We’re trying to maximize awareness in the core season.”

The videos will also run on local online advertising platform MaxPoint, gossip news site Gawker, digital media platform Xaxis, streaming video site Hulu, NBC News, and within the Weather Company’s Weather FX division.

According to Luca, the brand has done some weather- and usage-based targeting within these channels and has tried to “associate [itself] with certain content about the active outdoor lifestyle and occasions when they’re out in the sun.”

Sarah Barclay, executive creative director at advertising company JWT, adds, “We’re trying to catch men where they are and doing stuff that blokes do.”

The Triple Defense product marks Banana Boat’s first foray into a male-specific line and includes trial sizes not only to encourage consumers to try the product, but to also bring it in a golf bag or a tacklebox, Luca says.

The brand saw that melanoma rates among men increased 400 percent in the last 30 years, so it did a survey with the Skin Cancer Foundation and found only 50 percent of men use sunscreen. “And those that do don’t do it properly or use as much as they need to or for beach and pool use only,” Luca says.

What’s more, she says most consumers only use one-third of the proper amount and don’t have enough awareness or concern about long-term skin damage.

“This was an opportunity to help guys to use sunscreen more often and properly,” Luca says. “A lot of the time, guys don’t think they need it with everyday activities or they don’t like the way it feels – it’s greasy – so we developed a line of products for them.”

In addition, Barclay notes the brand has a sport variant and the agency “didn’t want to cannibalize that area…we wanted to speak to men in their everyday lives and challenge them to get out and do what they do – mow the lawn or nap – which are manly things, but do it heroically because they’re protected.”

Barclay adds, “We were really just trying to avoid the cliché of saying you’re going to become a superhero and just embrace dudes being dudes doing dude-y things.”

Additionally, the brand says it will use Twitter’s advanced conversation targeting platform and weather sites like The Weather Channel to run a Twitter campaign customized to local events and weather forecasts. In it, @BananaBoat says it will intercept conversations around the heat and challenge men to go outside with the hashtag #DefytheSun.

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