Results and Effectiveness

Our approach produced extraordinary results for an 8 week campaign in a low interest category. The business goal; a 1% increase in category penetration, was exceed by 20%. This growth can be directly attributed to shift in the purchase behaviour of bar soap users as penetration in this category declined by the same amount. Palmolive delivered its growth target achieving its highest share in a 12 month period in one major retailer, the highest in two years in the other. Ranking improved for every SKU, delivering a massive revenue increase for a market leader in an established category.

Creative Execution

A light-hearted and easy to share campaign was designed to deliver shock value and create a social stigma around bar soap usage that would motivate our socially conscious consumers to switch. Paid advertising was used to showcase soap-sharing “shockers”; owned content and social media to deliver scale and drive engagement. Paid media was also used as a directional tool, steering consumers to owned digital assets housed on a bespoke microsite. Sharing tools were created to allow our target to seed campaign elements in community spaces driving awareness and incentivising others to visit brand owned spaces. Finally messaging was reinforced close to transactional points of purchase. Outdoor sites were placed in close proximity of major retailers while an experiential piece staged in shopping centres saw two characters - a dirty bar of soap and shower gel bottle - recruiting shoppers to “ditch the soap”.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

As the dominant market leader in a flat shower gel category, it was clear that Palmolive could only achieve significant growth by attracting new category users. Marketing communication needed to 1) shift bar soap users to shower gel to deliver a 1% increase in penetration 2) establish Palmolive Naturals as the first choice for new category entrants Segmentation identified our key target as socially aspirational females with more money than good taste. Qualitative research revealed that the concept that shared bar soap was unhygenic, and therefore less socially acceptable, was much more motivating for our target than the product attributes of moisture, perfume and packaging - traditionally the focus of category communication. This insight provided scope for a new type of communication within the category allowing the brand opportunities to inject humour and elements of social currency into its communication.