Scrap Book

Background

In light of the growing concerns over the generation of ‘cotton wool’ kids and child obesity, Persil created the global Dirt is Good campaign to remind mums that getting dirty through active play - often outside - is an essential part of growing up. While also reassuring them that no matter what their little angels got up to, Persil would always be able to eradicate the dirtiest of dirt stains. In 2008 Persil launched their new Every Child Has The Right (to be a child) campaign. In essence a push to tell mums about the importance of unstructured play.

Idea

The idea harked back to more fun and innocent times by giving kids and mums a scrapbook - but updated for today's world. It featured lots of big white space (in fact, light colours) plus loads of ideas about how to fill it - with ideas for Play, Explore, Create, Imagine and Experiment - all centred around drawing, collecting things from gardens and parks and writing stories.

Mailed to mums and handed out at screenings of Wall-E and Playday events, the scrapbook dropped just before the summer holidays - perfect for helping busy mums keep kids occupied throughout the six week break. Mums and kids alike were encouraged to sign up for the online scrapbook, which had functions like being able to upload photos, draw on screen and share with friends and family members. The emphasis on the online scrapbook was to get mums and children to do all the activities outdoors but then record them in a virtual way. Accompanying the scrapbook was a letter to Mum explaining how essential this sort of play is for their kids’ development. She was also driven online for more fun ideas for play and activities.

Results

Actual figures are confidential but coupon redemptions were very good. The number of unique visitors to Persil.com in the first two weeks was 26,053, with 8,437 to the scrapbook area.

Volume/size of campaign

500,000 scrap books of two sizes

Our Thoughts

Dirt is Good is a huge advertising idea but the mother of my children was no different to another million Mums across the UK. She saw the sense in the idea. She agreed with it. But when she saw my son come in from the garden gloriously dirty, she went ballistic. The only way this idea was going to work and differentiate Persil against its P&G competitor was through the use of direct marketing. DM would (and did) get Mum to become an active participant in the dirtying of her kids. So while I might have a few quibbles with this particular execution, if pressed, it still stands as testament to what direct can do that no other channel can.