Results and Effectiveness

Priority launch & activity market reflected sales indices of 127 versus previous year. The online fashion design experience site drew 3.9 million unique visitors and over 70,000 t-shirt designs were submitted by consumers. Unaided awareness levels increased to 3 times pre-campaign levels for Ariel’s liquid variant. Post-campaign trial intent improved three and a half times. Association with key brand attributes of “knows me well & talks to me,” “would recommend to others,” and “removes stains better” increased 30%, 29% and 32%, respectively.

Creative Execution

“Art of Stain, Art of Clean” launched in major cities with street teams entertaining consumers by painting creative and funky t-shirt designs. Online, consumers were blanketed with dynamic ads across portals, SNS, fashion verticals, Search and blogs inviting them to join Wang Luodan – an actress popular for her chic fashion sense – to create and submit their own stylish t-shirt designs. Transit OOH drove awareness of the initiative and online experience. A mega-event in Shanghai’s 1933 art district brought media, fashion writers and consumers together for a “couture” show of fashion t-shirts designed by known and amateur artists. During the event, Cosmopolitan magazine named Ariel their 2010 Cleaning Choice of the Year. Attendees participated in a “Fashion Care Media Lab” to test the product superiority themselves. Features in targeted print environments recapped the festivities and integrated key opinion leader endorsements. In-store, consumers designed their own masterpieces using Wii’s interactive game format.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

In the low involvement laundry detergent category, Chinese consumers see all detergents as being the same, leading players to compete with one another on price. P&G’s Ariel brand was preparing to launch their liquid variant. In addition to facing challenging category dynamics, Ariel suffered from low brand awareness levels, limited understanding of superiority benefits and consumer sentiment that the brand was not “for me.” Our objective was to leverage the liquid launch to build brand awareness & credentials, while strengthening consumer relevance. Ariel’s high income, Tier 1+ urban lifestyle oriented female consumers – demanding in quality, discerning in taste – treat every day as though it is a trip down the fashion catwalk. To appeal to this selective and stylish community, we created China’s first detergent brand crossover with the fashion industry, inviting consumers to discover Ariel’s cleaning power through “DIY” art & fashion design with “Art of Stain, Art of Clean.”