Febreze: FEBREZE MAN IN A BOX

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Live Events and/or Stunts

Advertiser: PROCTER & GAMBLE

Product/Service: BRAND PROMOTION

Agency: HILL+KNOWLTON STRATEGIES

Associate Director: Zaza Biddu (Hill / Knowlton)

Account Manager: Vicki Potter (Hill / Knowlton)

Account Executive: Emily Sams (Hill / Knowlton)

Senior Events Manager: Carlo Montemarano (Haygarth)

Account Manager: Amy Walker (Proximity)

Media Planner: Paul Hamilton (Optimedia)

Production Manager: Alex Menzies (10 Group)

Executive Creative Director: Per Pedersen (Grey New York)

Creative Director / Copy: Rob Lenois (Grey New York)

Creative Director /AD: Rob Perillo (Grey New York)

Media placement: Trade & Consumer PR - On And Off Line Media Channels, Broadcast - 26th October 2011



Summary of the Campaign

We took a global campaign idea and added local topspin, resulting in Febreze being the only UK Aircare brand to grow volume and value share in 2011.



The challenge was to overcome consumer skepticism around Febreze’s efficacy against genuinely tough odours, and PR met the challenge head on by setting out to prove Febreze’s effectiveness in the toughest of smelly situations. The activity was designed and delivered under the management of the PR agency which led to a truly holistic execution that was promoted across media channels.



The Febreze Breathe Happy Experiment, the UK’s largest ever odour experiment, saw a purpose-built box constructed in Europe's largest shopping centre and one brave man live in it for 3 days straight. Designed to accumulate the odours, we set about kicking up a stink with 9 odour-inducing challenges and no escape. The stench was verified by the public gallery, and it was bad!



Febreze set about eliminating the eye-watering odours before recruiting and blindfolded participants to go into the box and tell us what they could smell. The power of Febreze was a success with 100% positive comments.



A total of 222 pieces of coverage with a reach of 250,000,000 was generated by the PR team alongside delivering daily video packages that ran across Febreze social media channels, resulting in record engagement figures and doubling fans.



The experiment delivered against the business objectives with Febreze taking market leadership and 19% value share growth at end of campaign.



The Situation

Febreze looked to do 2 things:

1. Attract new users to the brand;

2. Encourage existing users to pick up more products in the Febreze family of products.



The aircare category is purchased on autopilot with shoppers not differentiating between the brands, products and formats on offer. It is also seen as a category of broken promises with shoppers not believing that air fresheners can live up to their claims, following previous bad experiences.



Febreze has the power to overcome these trial barriers and get 1 or more Febreze products into shoppers' baskets.



The Goal

We understand more about the shoppers' habits and mind-sets; the global team undertook consumer research groups, from which the insight, 'you can close your eyes, but you can't shut off your nose', arose.



Following identifying this key insight, a campaign was developed that put the thinking that beauty might actually in the nose of the beholder at the heart of the execution.



The execution was rooted in consumer truth and looked to address the campaign objectives of attracting new users and increasing purchase of current users for Febreze.



The Strategy

Working in collaboration with the media agencies, the strategy was to create a unique and extreme smell experiment that would provide content to promote across media channels including PR, advertorials, Facebook, YouTube and online ads.



We stayed true to the brand’s equity of ‘witty ingenuity’ and gave the brand a platform to deliver against the toughest situations proving the efficacy of the product. It was an idea unique to Febreze and was disruptive and a break-through for the aircare category.



We took the idea across multiple touch points and married the traditional and digital platforms, allowing Febreze to talk to their audience with relevant and desirable content, addressing Febreze’s desire to have an online presence.



Execution

We took the global campaign idea of Breathe Happy, added local topspin and executed a 4-day experiment, to prove the efficacy of Febreze in extreme conditions



- 4m x 4m perspex box set up in Europe's largest shopping centre to maximise exposure;

- 3 daily odour inducing challenges including gutting a fish, fitness class and pizza night with friends;

- Gave people the ability to choose and control the challenges through Facebook;

- Created 2 video edits daily featuring all the day’s excitement to be posted on Facebook and You Tube for public to view;

- Celebrity host, Stephen Mulhern, helped to drive pre-event coverage, host video content, tweet and engage the crowds at the event;

- Launched photocall set up, featuring bespoke picture opportunities for key publications being targeted;

- Explored a wide range of media option available to generate buzz and awareness including: event listing pages, bloggers, London guides, national newspapers, radio, online video channels.



Documented Results

The experiment saw Febreze take market leadership and be the only aircare brand to show growth in the UK market in 2011, with a 19% value share growth at end of campaign (versus 1 year ago, source TNS).



It addressed the challenge in changing how people perceive the efficacy of Febreze with those seeing the activity claiming a huge 96% increase in future purchase consideration.



PR led the planning and activation process, providing content to leverage across multiple media channels, while also delivering 222 pieces of PR coverage with a reach of 250,000,000.



Activity doubled Facebook fans over course of the experiment, got 50% of our Facebook community ‘talking about’ it, versus 16% benchmark from Facebook and generated very high engagement levels of 0.5% versus a target of 0.3%



Total footfall for the 4 days of activity at Westfield: 555,914; direct consumer interaction at event: 166,774.