Neat, Laura and Philipp!
Detergent Guerrilla marketing to attract attention to comfort. The focus: a pair of fabric soaps.
Detergent Guerrilla marketing to attract attention to comfort. The focus: a pair of fabric soaps.
Boring and interchangeable - that's how most advertising for the low-interest detergent product group still looks today. But for Comfort, the market leader among fabric finishers according to manufacturer Lever Fabergé, 2001 marked the dawn of different times. At that time, Ogilvy London launched a European Comfort campaign that broke with the stereotypical style of conventional detergent commercials. High entertainment value was the top priority, as knowledge about fabric finishers and about Comfort in particular was not to be conveyed to the target group in the usual informative way, but to suggest a comparison in an entertaining way: What people value their skin care, they should also value the care of their textiles or their second skin. And: comfort should be synonymous with this textile care. In Switzerland, Comfort's country of origin, the campaign with the parallel world will not be launched until early summer, following a high-profile announcement. For the positioning, the British creatives enlisted the help of Bristol-based Aardman Animations (makers of the animated films "Chicken Run" and "Wallace and Gromit"). With a love of detail and originality, they realized the concept in a world with fabric people who care for their fabric skin with comfort, just as people care for their skin with gentle body care products. At the center of the elaborate production, which sets new standards in detergent advertising, is the couple Laura and Philipp.
Anything but fibrousIn the half-minute soap opera spots, they present themselves to the viewer in their quirky world of fabric - freshly recovered after the iron sauna in the gym, as secret agents in a nightmare or with gay beauty consultant Quintin. As befits a real soap, new characters also appear in the world of fabric, introducing new storylines. For example Stichler, a fabric biker who becomes a veritable softie after an accident with Comfort.
For the launch of the fabric world, Mediaxis worked with PR consultant David Schärer to place the main characters Laura and Philipp in the editorial columns of various print media and on TV programs. They appeared everywhere where they were not expected - at the Muba, at the Geneva Motor Show, at football matches or as studio guests. Radio spots and advertisements accompanied the guerrilla appearances.
"Studies have shown that this unusual appearance is understood and also liked when it is clear that the commercials are set in the fabric world," says Claudia Le Flocq from Mediaxis, explaining the pre-launch activities, which are intended to pave the way for the early evening soaps in the advertising block. There, the rag dolls will feel in the best of company in the neighborhood of the multimedia soap opera "Beck & Bondi".
Soaped up in the best wayWith Laura and Philipp, the endless series format returns to its origins. In 1932, the first real radio soap opera in the USA, "Betty and Bob", distracted housewives from their dull everyday lives with heartache.
The concept of the successful genre, which was based on domestic novels, was coined by its sponsors: almost exclusively detergent companies. Pioneers such as P&G were thus able to better bind the target group to themselves and convey their messages. In the year before the outbreak of the Second World War alone, P&G produced 22 serials. The first TV soap "A Woman to Remember" was launched in 1947 (la).
Two who have washed up: Laura and Philipp, advertising ambassadors for Comfort.
Comfort duo on text pages:On a first-name basis with celebrities.
Luca Aloisi
Boring and interchangeable - that's how most advertising for the low-interest detergent product group still looks today. But for Comfort, the market leader among fabric finishers according to manufacturer Lever Fabergé, 2001 marked the dawn of different times. At that time, Ogilvy London launched a European Comfort campaign that broke with the stereotypical style of conventional detergent commercials. High entertainment value was the top priority, as knowledge about fabric finishers and about Comfort in particular was not to be conveyed to the target group in the usual informative way, but to suggest a comparison in an entertaining way: What people value their skin care, they should also value the care of their textiles or their second skin. And: comfort should be synonymous with this textile care. In Switzerland, Comfort's country of origin, the campaign with the parallel world will not be launched until early summer, following a high-profile announcement. For the positioning, the British creatives enlisted the help of Bristol-based Aardman Animations (makers of the animated films "Chicken Run" and "Wallace and Gromit"). With a love of detail and originality, they realized the concept in a world with fabric people who care for their fabric skin with comfort, just as people care for their skin with gentle body care products. At the center of the elaborate production, which sets new standards in detergent advertising, is the couple Laura and Philipp.
Anything but fibrousIn the half-minute soap opera spots, they present themselves to the viewer in their quirky world of fabric - freshly recovered after the iron sauna in the gym, as secret agents in a nightmare or with gay beauty consultant Quintin. As befits a real soap, new characters also appear in the world of fabric, introducing new storylines. For example Stichler, a fabric biker who becomes a veritable softie after an accident with Comfort.
For the launch of the fabric world, Mediaxis worked with PR consultant David Schärer to place the main characters Laura and Philipp in the editorial columns of various print media and on TV programs. They appeared everywhere where they were not expected - at the Muba, at the Geneva Motor Show, at football matches or as studio guests. Radio spots and advertisements accompanied the guerrilla appearances.
"Studies have shown that this unusual appearance is understood and also liked when it is clear that the commercials are set in the fabric world," says Claudia Le Flocq from Mediaxis, explaining the pre-launch activities, which are intended to pave the way for the early evening soaps in the advertising block. There, the rag dolls will feel in the best of company in the neighborhood of the multimedia soap opera "Beck & Bondi".
Soaped up in the best wayWith Laura and Philipp, the endless series format returns to its origins. In 1932, the first real radio soap opera in the USA, "Betty and Bob", distracted housewives from their dull everyday lives with heartache.
The concept of the successful genre, which was based on domestic novels, was coined by its sponsors: almost exclusively detergent companies. Pioneers such as P&G were thus able to better bind the target group to themselves and convey their messages. In the year before the outbreak of the Second World War alone, P&G produced 22 serials. The first TV soap "A Woman to Remember" was launched in 1947 (la).
Two who have washed up: Laura and Philipp, advertising ambassadors for Comfort.
Comfort duo on text pages:On a first-name basis with celebrities.
Luca Aloisi
