OMO/Surf Excel/Rinso/Breeze: Dirt is good -

The value of dirt

SUMMARY
OMO, Surf, Rinso and Breeze are a franchise of detergents owned by Unilever in Asia;
the brand name varies between countries.

The “Dirt is Good” campaign had already been rolled out in the Americas and they sought to
promote the brand in Asia using this positioning. But this would be difficult as dirt was
synonymous with poverty, poor hygiene and disease in Asia. The campaign was built around
the insight that Asian mothers feared their kids forgetting the cultural values of their
generation. Therefore, the “Dirt is Good” philosophy was framed through the idea that dirt
could help children practice lifetime values that mothers believed were important. The
campaign was promoted primarily on TV and supported by PR and online media. As a result
of the campaign, sales in Asia grew tenfold and market share reached as high as 70% in some
countries.

Campaign details
Brand owner: Unilever
Agency: Lowe and Partners Singapore
Brand: OMO/Surf Excel/Rinso/Breeze ('Dirt is Good')
Countries: Pan Asia (including India, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam)
Channels used: Cinema,Events and experiential, Internet - general, Magazines - consumer,
Newspapers, Online video, Other and ambient media, Outdoor, out-of-home, Point-of-
purchase, in-store media, Print - general, unspecified, Product and other sampling, Public
relations, Radio, Sales promotion, Television Media budget:Over 20 million

Executive summary
How giving dirt a 'value' grew sales tenfold in Asia

This was a case of how a single brand idea that used anti-detergent category advertising
speak grew sales by over 1000% over seven years. For decades, communication in the
detergent category had been a war of molecules. The category spoke the language of 'washes
brightest, washes cleanest… whiter than the whitest, best stain-removal power… now with
super-clean molecules… now with bigger molecules!'

The common perception was that dirt was the enemy and detergent X was the cure. In
reversing this logic and making dirt 'good' in a mum's eyes – by showing her the life values
kids learn and then exhibit through dirt – we were able to continuously grow the brand across
Asia exponentially:

 The brand's sales in Asia grew tenfold. (Source: Unilever finance team.)
 We became the No.1 brand in most Asian countries, with market share reaching as high as
70%. (Source: Nielsen sales tracking data)
 Tracking scores on 'believe dirt is a positive part of life' continued to grow. Depending on the
market, 60-80% of the target agreed with this statement. (Source: Millward Brown attribute
tracking data)
 Brand bonding scores have increased across markets at an average of 30% ever since the
launch. (Source: Millward Brown brand health data.)
 This idea has shaped positive action, from governments changing the school curriculum and
including more time for play (Vietnam) to introducing parks for children (Vietnam, Thailand)
and more.

Market background and business objectives

OMO, Surf, Rinso and Breeze are a franchise of detergents (depending on the country you
live in) unified by the single ideology 'dirt is good' (DiG).

The idea was first conceived in the late '90s, and rolled out in the Americas. The idea was
decoded as 'dirt = experiential learning = good' and brand shares increased instantly. As a
completely counter intuitive way to look at detergent communication, the idea that dirt is
good needed to land in the developing and emerging (D and E) world. But landing it was
going to be more challenging than we thought!

The challenge

Dirt is seen as bad in Asia. Dirt equals poverty, squalor, poor hygiene, hardship, disease and
sometimes death.

Add to this years of messaging to propagate good hygiene by the likes of the World Health
Organisation, Unicef and, indeed, massive D and E brands like Lifebuoy and Dettol, which
had convinced mothers that dirt was bad and best avoided.

The challenge the team had to grapple with was finding a new meaning for dirt that made it
good in the eyes of the D and E mum. We knew from the Americas that those who bought
into the philosophy of dirt being good, tend to buy into the brand. Our objectives for Asia
were:

 Double brand proceeds from sales over a five-year period by growing volume
 Make 'dirt is good' a top-two player in each market of Asia where it exists, in terms of value
and volume
 Establish the philosophy of 'dirt is good' by getting mums to agree with a tracking measure of
'getting dirty is a positive part of life' with at least two in 10 mums agreeing with this
statement
 Establish the brand's 'cleaning' credentials with consistent growth in the tracking attribute
'cleans clothes thoroughly'
 Increase bonding with the brand by at least 10-15% over a period of five years.

So was there an angle, a philosophy shared in the D and E markets that could allow dirt to
become 'good' in mums' eyes and help us to achieve our objectives?
 Insight and strategic thinking
Our target was mums in the developing and emerging markets of Asia that believed:

 Dirt is bad
 Allowing their kids to get dirty was 'not a positive part of life'. They rejected dirt and
anything else that they deemed unhygienic.

The breakthrough

Surely there must be something that makes getting dirty more relatable and acceptable to
people in this part of the world? We began to investigate the issues and barriers to accepting
this philosophy – meeting mums across key markets, interviewing psychologists and
observers of parenting trends. Through this deep-dive, breakthroughs came by exploring how
to bring the idea to life specifically for audiences in each market. We began to explore
smaller, more intimate human insights in a search for a pay-off that mothers would
wholeheartedly endorse. How exactly was it good to get dirty?

The insight that made dirt 'good'

Mums in Asia shared a deep-rooted fear of their kids forgetting the cultural values that her
generation had cherished. Worried that modern living was not encouraging these values to be
passed down, they welcomed any vehicle that might help them do this.

The strategic steer

So to make getting dirty 'good' for mums, we needed to make the act of the child getting dirty
purposeful. The purpose needed to be rooted in Asian culture, beyond the western world's
view of skill development and general learning. The act of the child getting dirty must be
through displaying 'values' that mums in these markets cherish.

With this in mind, we led a decoding of Asian values. What do mums find intriguing,
genuinely persuasive or more fulfilling? This was interpreted both from the macro Asia
perspective as well as a micro country perspective. Values of 'forgiveness', 'sacrifice',
'gratitude', 'courage', 'determination' and many more became the cornerstone for
communication development and the heart of all DiG stories in these markets. So while the
west interpreted the idea of DiG in a 'skill development and general learning' way, we
interpreted DiG as displaying life values that mums cherish in Asia. When mothers saw that
getting dirty could help children practise those lifetime values that she believed were
important, then the experience might just offer some real gain for the child. And instead of
trying to convince her about the logic of 'dirt is good', our advertising concentrated on
portraying the benefits of getting dirty in an engaging and charming way.

Here's where we saw a strong role for the brand – a child's experiences could be equated to
learning the values of life. The brand's viewpoint became: 'If getting dirty leads to your child
learning and exhibiting life values, then dirt is good'. With this lens, we were a mum's ally in
imparting great values to her children. Through numerous integrated campaigns that
expressed this viewpoint through the eyes of her child's development, we were able to reach
out and join hands with these mothers

Implementation, including creative and media development

In countries like India: Mothers place great worth on the harmony of their family, and filial
love and care. Here we launched 'Dirt is Good' with an execution where a little boy gets dirty
by 'punishing' a muddy puddle that has dirtied his sister.

In countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam: Simple stories of generosity and
consideration worked particularly well – a boy who makes a birthday cake for his mother, for
example, or kids coming together for Tet (Vietnam's Lunar New Year) celebrations.

'Dirt is Good' has been a great storytelling campaign and, as such, TV was always the main
medium through which it was brought to life.

That said, the power of 'Dirt is Good' has been built through a variety of other media as well.
PR played a powerful role in the launch for each of the markets, by promoting the
implications of the philosophy and encouraging national debate. The campaign continues to
be supported by both traditional and online media, as well as a wide range of activations to
bring its impact alive for millions. From the Kala Goda children's festival in Mumbai to new
play parks in Thailand, DiG made itself present in the schools and streets of the developing
world. Thanks to seasonal sponsorship in Vietnam, OMO is now the brand most associated
with its Tet celebrations.

Performance against objectives

In measuring the long-term impact of this campaign, we will not report on the individual
targets for each execution, but instead will aim to demonstrate the strengthening of market
share that has been created by the campaign over the course of the time it has run.

Of course, market share is influenced by a number of non-communication factors, so one of

the intermediate metrics that we used across all countries was an evaluation of brand health.
The Millward Brown brand dynamics tool provides an assessment of brand strength based on
its laundry-tracking data. It gives metrics for brand loyalty derived from a quantification of
the strength of consumers' relationships with a brand. The strongest brands are shown as
those with the highest percentages of people recognising the brand's advantage, and
ultimately the proportion of the audience 'bonding' with the brand.
 At an immediate level, the advertising plays a key role in driving the attributes associated
with the brand. With the objective of trying to convince consumers of our functional
superiority, the third metric we tracked was belief in its cleaning performance. This was
captured by Millward Brown's tracking, which monitors agreement with attribute statements.
Of these, the most basic reflection of trust in the brand's ability is 'cleans clothes thoroughly'.

Snapshot

Six years after the launch of the idea across Asia, the brand continues to grow exponentially:

 The brand's sales in Asia grew tenfold. (Source: Unilever finance team.)
 We became the No.1 brand in most Asian countries, with market share reaching as high as
70%. (Source: Nielsen sales tracking data)
 Tracking scores on 'believe dirt is a positive part of life' have continued to grow. Depending
on the market, 60-80% of the target agreed with this statement. (Source: Millward Brown
attribute tracking data)
 Brand bonding scores have increased across markets at an average of 30% ever since the
launch. (Source: Millward Brown brand health data.)
 This idea has shaped positive action, from governments changing the school curriculum and
including more time for play (Vietnam) to introducing parks for children (Vietnam, Thailand)
and more.

Overview

Sustained growth in brand bonding

The Millward Brown brand dynamics measure of ultimate brand commitment, brand
bonding, has increased in all cases since the launch of 'Dirt is Good'. In the other countries,
this measure was not introduced until 2008, but since then it has strengthened in all markets
to date. In Vietnam it has grown from 66% to 74%, in Indonesia from 38% to 52%, and in
India from 22% to 24%. Our target was 10-15% in Asia, but we have exceeded this with an
overall growth average of 30%.

BRAND BONDING 2008 vs 2011

(Source: Millward Brown tracking data)

Sustained growth in agreement (attitude change) of the 'Dirt is Good' measure

Tracking scores of 'getting dirty is a positive part of life' have been improving continuously,
so the belief in the brand philosophy is getting stronger every year. Depending on the market,
60-80% of the target agrees with this statement. Our target was to get at least two in 10 mums
agreeing with this statement, but we have exceeded this across the markets with six to eight
mums in 10 now agreeing with the statement.

(Source: Millward Brown tracking data)

Sustained growth in cleaning attributes

During the process of monitoring this campaign changes have been made to the methodology,
so we only have comparable data from 2008 onwards. Here we can see how the brand has
developed a considerably far stronger reputation as a brand that 'cleans clothes thoroughly'.
This campaign has not only been successful in reinforcing DiG's superior cleaning credentials
against a barrage of competitor's molecular claims, it has built stronger emotional bonds with
its users and grown its market share as a result.
(Source: Millward Brown tracking data)

Sustained growth in market share

We have used three markets to illustrate the impact of DiG. To put this into context, pre-
campaign the increasingly competitive market conditions had resulted in DiG's market share
growth stagnating across the three markets. Post-launch, volume market share had jumped up
to unprecedented levels.

(Source: Nielsen sales tracking data)

To preserve confidentiality, this data is shown by country, and by year, as an index in the
graphs above. As can be seen, DiG has grown its share of the market year-on-year. This, we
believe, is clear evidence that in the fastest-growing markets, against the leading detergent
players in the world, adding 'values' to the brand idea gave DiG the edge. Our objectives were
to double brand proceeds from sales over a five-year period by growing volume – which we
not only exceeded by growing it by over 1000%, but also sustained it.

Value share grew in line with volume share, demonstrating that gains were not made simply
by lowering price. The only exception here is Indonesia, where a pricing battle lost the brand
both value and volume share in 2008, but this was recovered in 2009 and was at its highest
level in 2011.

DiG is an emotionally led campaign in a highly competitive and commoditised market, which
turned the market's scientifically based 'laboratory demonstration' style of advertising on its
head, and in so doing delivered impressive and sustained market share gains over an extended
period.

The annual brand value sales in Asia have grown tenfold from the time the campaign first
broke here – that's an increase of over 1000%. DiG is now the biggest detergent in the D and
E world.

But the 'marketing with soul' result for us is the cultural shift we continued to make in
children's lives – the fact that more mums in Asia have changed their attitude and now see
dirt as 'a positive part of her child's life'.

Lessons learned
When an idea is rejected for cultural reasons, sometimes the solution to unlocking this lies
within the cultural context itself. 'Dirt is bad' was what we were up against in Asia, and by
using what Asian mothers deemed important – 'deep-rooted Asian values' – we were able to
make dirt 'good' for them.

Sticking to an idea

We often get fidgety and want to move things along, push things further. In the case of 'Dirt
is Good' and the use of 'values' to translate the idea and make it relevant, both the marketer
and the agency now hold the view that this is how we should continue to progress the brand –
in an absolutely anti-category way. We now just need to ensure that we keep it fresh and
provocative, with new 'values' that are topical for our times (eg when bullying was becoming
a hot topic of discussion in India, we used the context of bullying with the value of
'forgiveness' to create the 'Sack Race' campaign).

'Magic' has been our best 'logic'. Logic is built in the magic of the way we communicated
'Dirt is Good' – the brand idea subsumes the functionality. We don't really need to show
category codes of microfibre cleaning and the detergent in action blasting dirt away. Simple
dirt-catching stories can exude the confidence that we clean well. It is this anti-category code
that has helped us deliver growth in our cleaning attribute scores.