2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

In the Egyptian market, offered content is divided between 3 main genres; social talk shows covering what’s happening on a country level, drama or series, and entertainment programs/Special formats. The challenge faced by most brands is striking a balance between content and relevance. Sponsorships do not offer that; they only offer media benefits. Moreover, any branded content needs to go through a lengthy process of approvals, and strict guidelines in order to deliver on the required hype. It’s also noteworthy to mention that sponsorships do not grant brands social conversations within the same deal. The hype of branded content has proven successful with many brands in the past 2 years, but content relevance has always been what makes or breaks the campaign’s success. The hype was mostly led by the use of influencers who lent their credibility to the brands. By time, media consumption patterns have evolved and video content took the lead on reach, right after TV. The laundry category in specific faces more challenges stemming from its strictly functional nature that leaves a narrow window of exciting communication, and struggling to find relevant content to brand. Regionally, laundry branded content was GCC-led, rendering it irrelevant to Egyptian audience.

Results

In 2014, Persil was to introduce cutting-edge laundry technology - Stain Tech formula - that is tougher on stains even in cold water. A claim that was set to directly address that majority of the consumers that believe that hot water is the only way to get rid of stains, and cold water is ineffective. The second part of the challenge was the strictly functional message that depended on product demo as the key focus of the ad. This strictly functional communication is what renders laundry a low-involvement category online, and deepens our challenge of getting the message through. During its two years online, most of Persil's audience were aspiring middle class housewives who turned to us for advice rather than engaging in two-way conversations. Persil was faced with the added challenge of expanding reach and opening more channels for discussion to include A/B classes, a harrowing task with a diverse population like Egypt. With the Egyptian woman’s media consumption habits and interests at the core, we launched #ClothesAreMemories, seamlessly weaving Persil within our target’s online conversations. Every woman has an item of clothing that held memories or a special place in her wardrobe. Persil can help preserve those memories through the latest technology and special advice from our partner designer on styling and fabric care. Our women were encouraged to share with us their most cherished items of clothing and the stories and memories behind them all under #ClothesAreMemories Persil, in return, made the promise of creating new memories with one lucky lady, wife, mother, who will have the chance to enjoy a pampering experience that starts with a fashion spree from the Amina K latest line and an exclusive photo-shoot to follow.

Egyptian fashion designers, photographers and bloggers were developing an industry unique to the country. Users have become both audience and salesmen. With this recent awareness came a need to preserve clothes they spend time and effort to pick. We saw a perfect opportunity in tying this insight to recently launched Persil Stain Tech that is tougher on stains even in cold water, essential for preserving fabrics. Fashion designer Amina-K was the face of the activation. Her credibility in the fashion industry and Persil’s credibility as a leading detergent were a strong force that pulled Egyptian women to participate in #ClothesAreMemories.

Not only was #ClothesAreMemories the first laundry branded content created solely for online circulation targeting Egyptian consumers, it also # got the right people talking; niche targets from A/B SEC’s sought out Amina K’s style expertise, with over 2000 photos of the favorite clothing items and their memories were shared throughout the campaign. The makeover photos were the talk of Egyptian fashion sphere, with Amina K receiving many clients requesting items from the shoot. Sales volume increased by 9% vs. 2013, 127% increase in average engagement rate on Facebook vs. KPI, 17% increase in Facebook fans vs. KPI, 13% increase in video views on YouTube vs. KPI and enhancing the overall TV campaign reach with YouTube by achieving 2.1% incremental reach.