Laundry detergent marketing has historically been functional and family-oriented. But it's not just parents who need to wash clothes; everyone needs to wash them. Unilever is using the latest innovations to transform laundry marketing.
Unilever brand Persil has ambitious plans to revamp its image and marketing with a new detergent, Wonderwash, to appeal to more households.
We've all seen the classic laundry ad. A child plays in the dirt, a parent puts their dirty clothes in the washing machine, the detergent makes them white again, and oh, the parent randomly smells the clothes. This is the textbook formula that has worked for Unilever's laundry business for years.
For its latest innovation, quick-cycle detergent, Persil breaks with convention and features Usain Bolt in a humorous spot that doesn't show dirty clothes, just a glimpse of the washing machine.
But Tati Lindenberg, vice president of marketing for Dirt is Good (Persil), tells The Drum that this isn't just about a single product launch. “This is also a way to modernize the entire brand image,” she says. “This gives us even more marketing freedom.”
Wonder Wash detergent looks and feels different than other Persil products. The bottle is transparent, the liquid is in “jazz colors” and the label and logo have been modernized.
Wonderwash was developed as a way for Unilever to create a product that targets the laundry habits of city dwellers and sell it to more households. Research shows that people who live in cities tend to spend less time washing their clothes. “Wonderwash is a way to target households and consumer groups that are less penetrated than, for example, households with children or the elderly,” she says.
Traditionally, Persil's media plan was 80% TV and 20% in-store, but with Wonder Wash, the plan is now 55% TV and the rest digital and social, a significant reduction.
In the UK, Unilever has partnered with 200 influencers, primarily Cleanfluencers, who are leveraging #CleanTok. This is the first time Unilever's laundry business has been able to run a large-scale influencer campaign, as creating laundry content has proven difficult.
It's easier to show that a surface has been cleaned than it is for someone to put clothes in the washer and wait an hour to take it out and put it away. “Getting influencers to show us laundry products was very complicated and not very natural,” Lindenberg says. “Influencers couldn't create a lot of content, and we couldn't help them create content either.”
However, with Wonder Wash, which has a 15-minute wash cycle, Persil set a challenge for influencers to see what they could do in their wash time. “We can make laundry a little more fun and engaging for this audience. All of a sudden, the process of how to do laundry becomes a lot more exciting,” Lindenberg says.
As well as targeting young people through its media plan, Unilever is increasingly listing its products on e-commerce sites such as Amazon and Ocado.
Looking outside the category
It is Lindenberg's ambition to make Persil more of a “lifestyle” brand. To that end, she's forging partnerships with entertainment companies. “We thought a lot about what kind of entertainment we wanted and looked at partnering with Netflix, for example,” she reveals.
But the team landed on the sport because that's where Persil's products can show off their performance. “Sports can modernize brands by targeting multiple audiences, creating more engagement and demonstrating product performance. This is killing three birds with one stone,” she says. .
The strategy began earlier this month with a campaign in collaboration with Arsenal Football Club that saw Bukayo Saka's signature removed from children's shirts washed in Persil. The story is about a girl who is on a mission to find Saka in order to receive a new autograph. The ad was more emotional and cinematic compared to Persil's typical marketing, Lindenberg said, adding that he wanted a John Lewis Christmas-style campaign.
“I have challenged myself and my team to think differently and look for references outside of the laundry category,” she says. Lindenberg said the strategy revolved around “requiring a different way of thinking about agency partners,” with press PR firm Golin and Edelman joining forces with longtime agency partner MullenLowe.
“This helps us see how far we can extend our brand,” Lindenberg says. “Now our future communications can include nods and references to the performance, and we also have a way to extend Dirt is Good beyond kids.”
