As the Official Personal Care Products of the NCAA Men’s Final Four®, Unilever is no stranger to hyping up players and fans of The Big Dance. This year, Arc tapped into our own love of basketball, merging it with our unbeatable shopper expertise to create a unique game plan of engaging shopper solutions across retail, e-commerce, and event activations. The result was a full-court omnicommerce press that excited shoppers, fans, and communities alike.

To breakthrough an already cluttered space, Arc created an edgy visual approach featuring a recreational player, reinforcing that the best picks in men’s grooming are accessible to fans and players at all levels. This key visual became the VIP of dozens of retail executions before we passed the ball to our Amazon e-commerce specialists for a digital experience based on Clean and Cool vs. Fresh and Styled matchups. 

See it on Amazon.

And for one retailer in particular, we brought the locker room experience straight to the fans. With Houston, Texas playing host to the NCAA Final Four and championship games, it made sense to partner with Texas’s own H-E-B to create something totally custom to really hype up the crowd. 

At the NCAA Tip-Off Tailgate, Unilever and H-E-B invited fans to step inside the Lone Star Locker Room, an immersive experience modeled on a college stadium’s locker room. There, attendees were able to get game-day ready with Dove Men+Care, Degree, Suave, and AXE, shoot hoops in a giant bathtub ball pit, take a rookie card photo, and even score sweet gear. 

To round out our NCAA celebration, we also took our 2022 H-E-B Texas Barber Bracket and made it even bigger for 2023—continuing to support the trade school community by championing student barbers. The bracket-style challenge culminated with the Final Four student barbers appearing at a pop-up event at a Houston H-E-B during Final Four weekend. Shoppers got a spin in the barber chair as the student barbers competed for a grant to help further their career and education. 

No matter which team you rooted for, Unilever has taken Spring’s most anticipated sporting event and leveled it up for fans across the nation—making 2023 the most unforgettable championship yet.