Brief Explanation

We looked at organizations that P&G supports like the Philippine Red Cross. Discussions revealed that Red Cross warehouses are filled with donated clothes—about 18 tons yearly. A good number are fashionable pieces that are inappropriate for calamity victims. More than long gowns and leather jackets, survivors need food and other essentials. About 20 typhoons hit the Philippines yearly, leaving thousands of casualties. We needed a way to convert fashion into real aid. With numerous charitable organizations asking for donations year-round, the public can get jaded. We needed a compelling idea to spur people to action—without any media budget.

The Brief

Procter & Gamble wanted to strengthen its bond with the Filipino consumer. Its brands are staples in a household. They are considered to be high performance brands: Ariel is the detergent that “makes clothes look like new” and Downy is the fabric conditioner that provides fine fragrances to clothes. They also cost more than lower quality competition. But more than these utilitarian benefits, there was an opportunity to heighten an emotional connection with the consumer. P&G should be seen as responsive to the needs of the times and the Filipino people.

How the final design was conceived

Making discarded fashion pieces sellable again dovetailed with the benefits of Ariel and Downy making clothes fragrant and look like new. From large piles, fashion finds were set aside. Each piece was washed with Ariel and Downy. The country’s top stylists curated the clothes. The public needed to understand how these clothes turn into real aid. We created infographics that vividly showed the conversion into life essentials via simple equations. Aside from being used in promotional materials, these appeared on price tags attached to every item sold at the Aid Couture pop-up store, and on receipts customers received after shopping.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Aid Couture raised almost Php 600,000 on its first run and Php 1,200,000 on its second—all from clothes that would otherwise have been left rotting in Red Cross warehouses. The real-time sales tracker summarized this as amounting to 28,993 hot meals, 10,218 bottles of water, 1,378 medicine kits, 1,447 wound cleanser kits, 917 blanket and mat sets, 673 mosquito nets, 372 hygiene kits, and 817 food supply packs. Proceeds from the first run went to Typhoon Haiyan victims, while Typhoon Rammasun victims benefited from the second run. Aid Couture will be happening again soon to help save more lives.