TBWA\Chiat\Day launched a feline-friendly, pun-y campaign for laundry detergent brand Persil, with “Laundry Purrfection.”
Inside the “Super Duper Top Secret Investigation Center” Persil’s team has been hard at work observing the “connoisseurs of clean” in a very unofficial study. Of course, what that really translates to is a bunch of shots of very cute cats and a claim that felines prefer the brand, perhaps because of the name. It’s more or less your typical catvertising, relying pretty heavily on the innate appeal of cats and kittens, but, to its credit, the brand is also helping out a worthy cause.
Tying into the brand’s feline focus, parent company Henkel North America is donating detergent to animal shelters across the country. For every Persil bottle barcode registered at PersilDonates.com, Henkel North America will donate a bottle of detergent to an animal shelter (up to 100,000 wash loads of laundry). We’re pretty sure a monetary donation would be more useful, but it’s still a nice gesture.
“Our goal was to create an attention-grabbing digital activation that encourages viral sharing among consumers while giving back to our furry friends in need,” explained Janell Holas, vice president of marketing for the U.S. premium laundry detergents business unit at Henkel North America. “One of the most-searched keywords on the internet is ‘cats,’ with videos receiving more views-per-video than any other pet category on YouTube. When you pair that with their innate propensity to nuzzle up in fresh laundry, and the play on our brand name, Persil, this was a no brainer.”
In addition to the online spot, and accompanying “The Pickiest Cats Pick Persil” (below), the campaign also includes a social media activation around the hashtag “#Purrsil ,” a direct mail campaign targeting “high-profile social media cat-fluencers,” a related influencer campaign and “The Search for the Persil Spokescat Contest,” launching November 10.