Not only do Canadians not know about Cottonelle FreshCare Cleansing Cloths, but people were only using it in very limited occasions. 40% of Canadians aren't aware of this category so they turn to other solutions like dry toilet paper & baby wipes. Growth is coming from heavy users who have a habitual need for a wipe due to an inflection point (menstruation, potty training, or incontinence) and casual users don't know they can use it in more instances. Ogilvy and Mindshare needed to find new uses, and new customers, for the brand.

Young Canadians are getting more comfortable talking about sex but they still refuse to talk about the clean-up. With Toronto Pride being one of the largest Pride celebrations in the world, the agencies took Cottonelle to the masses in hopes of introducing a new way to use the wipes: pre, during and post-sex cleanup. Ogilvy and Mindshare developed a gamification strategy through content featuring the eggplant and kitty cat emoji, some of the most popular emojis used for sexting.

In today’s world of oversharing, almost anything can be openly discussed when it comes to sex. But, there’s still one part of sex that nobody openly talks about: how to clean up before and after. The target of the campaign was young Canadian LGBTQ adults and the agencies identified an opportunity based on a new consumer insight: cleanliness boosts confidence before, during and after “intimate moments.”

Classic sexting emoji’s eggplant and pussycat were integrated into three environments to help engage the audience in a gamification strategy: OOH activation, digitals ads and paid social. The custom developed OOH billboards helped encourage awareness, engagement and trial with the brand. For Toronto Pride, there were 2 digital touch screen boards where passersby were encouraged to ‘work for it’ to get a Cottonelle FreshCare sample pack! As the 17 second interaction was engaged with, Brand Ambassadors introduced the product and spoke to its benefits.

Mobile is quickly becoming the most important purchase decision tool, so
Ogilvy and Mindshare knew to be there; plus, coupons have always been important to shoppers as a way of driving value and trial of products. Knowing this, in dating apps the agencies produced interstitial ads that would appear and give consumers the choice to play with either emoji. They would then rub the nose of the pussycat – or shake their phone in a stroking motion to stimulate the eggplant – for a coupon. Upon “completion,” the user would then be supplied a mobile coupon redeemable at major retailers to help drive purchase motivation!

More than 15,000 samples were distributed at Pride, with one completed brand interaction every 38 seconds. The majority (78%+) agreed they'd buy Cleansing Cloths after engaging with the brand at Pride. On the mobile side, there were 649,773 in-app impressions. The expandable unit engagement rate was 29.72% and the average time was 19.4 seconds. The interstitial unit engagement rate was 51.09% and the average time was 14.4 seconds.