Charmin’s brand moves ‘ambient-style’
Sunday, May 10th, 2009
I recently developed this ambient media campaign for SCA and their brand Charmin. The premium toilet paper brand Charmin which was owned for decades by P&G was purchased by SCA a few years ago. Due to licensing issues, it was decided to rename the brand. Charmin therefore will be called Zewa Moll deluxe soon. SCA hired Epamedia, Austria’s largest Public Space company and me as their creative consultant and ambient media expert to develop an unconventional media campaign along Vienna’s busiest shopping street to announce the news.
Media strategy was to dominate Mariahilfer Straße (to be compared with London’s Oxford street) with many different touch points - surprising locations, charming messages and a product sampling in a very likeable style. Public telephone boxes were visually transformed into the brand’s mascot’s home. Thousands of toilet paper rolls were sampled through a team of Leonard bears who not only distributed the rolls by explaining that the brand would move ‘homes’ (from Charmin to Zewa Moll deluxe), the bears also hugged those who passed by. It was astonishing to experience how open people were to this physical touch… and even more astonishing how many people walked the streets with a toilet paper roll in their hand!
Streetstickers and guerilla signs were mounted alongside the busy shopping street. The bear also appeared in shop windows and in the display window of Vienna’s busiest English cinema. The most popular ice cream store Bortolotti was sponsored - their toilet doors and mirrors were showed the cute bear and his message and the store received free toilet paper for a 2 months period.
See a short review of the campaign here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D54QlYERMzI