Radiant Return
PZ Cussons Australia
Issue 35 | June 2015
Agency
DDB Group Melbourne
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Darren Spiller Executive Creative Director Simon Bagnasco Art Directors Chris Andrews Dan Grech Copywriters Simon Bagnasco Eamonn Dixon Digital Creative Director Steven Skrekovski Agency Producer Carol Sinclair Head of Broadcast Simon Thomas
Production Team
Director Stephen Carroll @ Exit Films Producer Tobias Webster @ Exit Films Editor Jon Holmes@ Exit Films Online Editor Jon Holmes@ Exit Films Sound Design & Mix Digital Producer Flagstaff Producer Brodie Flint Sound Engineer Paul Le Couteur & Dee Gjedsted Music Electric Dreams Producer Danny Thiris Composer James Cecil
Other Credits
Group Business Director Sarah Bailey Business Directors Luke Osborn Katie Kouts Business Executive Louise Sully Planner Ian Forth
Date
June 2014
Background
The stakes couldn't have been higher for the Radiant brand. The major supermarkets were about to remove it from their shelves. Brand consideration, penetration and loyalty were all stuck in a negative slide. The task was to create something audacious to show Australians how good Radiant really was.
Idea
To prove Radiant kept clothes looking good as new, a series of extreme product demonstrations were created.
In each of the tests, clothes were bought from regular retail outlets. Then they were tortured in a series of extreme ways: one guy wore a dress in a paintball fight, another played rugby in his outfit, a third sat at a potter's wheel and messed around with clay.
Once the garments were suitably dirty, they were washed with Radiant. Now they were returned to the shops they had been bought from.
13 of the 14 took back the clothes.
Each test was filmed for real using hidden cameras. And the resulting series of films formed the basis of a broader integrated campaign led by social and digital channels.
Results
After almost being delisted, Radiant became the fastest growing laundry brand in the country. Within a month it was the 1# washing detergent product in Australia's biggest supermarket, a feat that had never been achieved by the brand before.
Sales grew by 27% compared to the previous year. Household penetration for the brand reversed the negative trend with a 6.2% increase (year-on-year). In the first month alone, an estimated 92,000 new households had Radiant in their laundry.
Aside from that, as a direct campaign led by digital mediums, its greatest feat was a 400% increase in social engagement, 8.7 times above FMCG benchmarks.
Our Thoughts
This has been chosen by several top creative directors as a certainty to win at Cannes in Direct. What is terrific about the idea is it’s a good old-fashioned advertising idea – the torture test – but delivered in a thoroughly contemporary way. No actors in the film but real people mussing up the various garments and real sales assistants gasping as they see what their clothes have just been through. But behind the video and making it work effectively, there was obviously a well-planned seeding strategy and a pretty adept use of digital PR. So maybe more Golds for this than just in Direct.