Ariel Leads #ShareTheLoad Discussion On Social Media

About Ariel

Ariel is a marketing line of laundry detergents made by Procter & Gamble. It is the flagship brand in Procter & Gamble’s European, Mexican, Japanese, Brazilian, Peruvian, Turkish, Filipino, Pakistani, Colombian, Chilean, Indian and Venezuelan portfolios.

Its iconic atom symbol positioned the product as a new scientific breakthrough. And since its introduction, Ariel has undergone a steady stream of progressive product innovations.

With its strong performance and sustainability across the broadest spectrum of markets and people around the world, Ariel continues to be a leading and long-standing detergent brand.

Procter & Gamble Co., also known as P&G, is an American multinational consumer goods company headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, founded by William Procter and James Gamble, both from the United Kingdom.

Business Objectives

Espousing a noble cause is always a favorite activity of brands, and when it is a cause that’s right in your backyard, the impact is enormous. Women in India have two jobs – one at the office, and the other at home. As a leading detergent brand, Ariel decided to address this inequality at home.

Ariel wanted to create a campaign that would:-

1. Lead the conversation around laundry
2. Raise the emotional equity of the brand Ariel by having an engaging idea around laundry
3. Attempt to challenge cultural attitudes on gender roles.
4. Highlight the overriding notion that whilst women in today’s Indian society may be climbing the career ladder, they still partake in a greater share of household chores in contrast to their male counterparts.

Sharing a few interesting Stats

Strategy adopted by Ariel

Powered by the AC Neilsen data on household stats, Ariel’s #sharetheload stood strong in terms of numbers, and coupled it with well-executed campaigns across the various mediums :-

Offline Initiatives

1. His & Her Pack launched – placing the message right at the heart
2. Wash care label on garments mentioning that these garments could be washed by both men and women #ShareTheLoad
3. TVC was created which glaringly brought out the inequality of distribution of domestic work irrespective of the success quotient of the woman of the house
4. The message promoted by the iconic Dabbawalas of Mumbai, with campaign messages being printed on their t-shirts as well as their famed lunch boxes they transport to the men working at offices.
5. Debates on National TV on this topic
6. Bollywood celebrities joined the conversation started by Ariel, taking the question “is laundry only a woman’s job” further afield to cities across India. The campaign launch saw the likes of Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Neha Dhupia, Mandira Bedi, Amala Paul joining in on discussions which have generated national interest.

#SharetheLoad conversation on Digital Media

1. Tied up with leading matrimonial site and willingness to share the load was introduced in the matchmaking decision
2. Blogger outreach campaign powered through the many influencers on the medium – like women bloggers. Ariel launched a blogging contest where Participants needed to write in their real life stories or create fiction around this inequality in the home using the hashtag #IsLaundryOnlyAWomansJob.
3. YouTube ads
4. ‘Is Laundry only a woman’s job’? question has given rise to a lot of conversations on social media, with the hashtag #IsLaundryOnlyAWomansJob trending on Twitter.
5. Incentivized Twitter contests
6. Its Facebook page has also been populated with data and interesting graphics to represent the findings of a Nielsen survey which shows that a majority of Indian men feel that laundry is a woman’s job.
7. Ariel ensured the buzz was kept alive on social media by leveraging celebrities active on Twitter

Sharing a few interesting tweets from Ariel and Consumers:-

Results achieved by Ariel

1. PR worth $9.5 million
2. 1.6 Billion + earned media impressions
3. 1.5 Million+ of men pledge to share the load
4. Consumer engagement increased by 3 times – highest ever
5. 60% increase in sales

Learnings

1. Conversation around Social issues that impacts our everyday lives has become an integral part of advertising for Leading brands e.g. Myntra featuring Radhika Apte highlighting the pregnancy bias in workplace, Dabur’s Vatika hair oil which was an ode to Brave & Beautiful as these strike an emotional connect with the user
2. As a leading brand, you can start and lead a conversation
3. Chosen topic must be backed by survey results, research and not be opinionated. E.g in this case, survey results from AC Neilsen were used and published across social media.
4. The gratification of winners in the contests brings about high-level engagement. Twitter & Blogging contests helped Ariel get higher engagement from the users
5. Social Media – Twitter & Facebook have the power of taking the conversation to the next level
6. Twitter allows a 2 way conversation between the brand and the consumer and lets the brand know the sentiment and the success or failure of its campaign
7. Leveraging multiple media including National television helps creating mass awareness of the idea
8. The campaign has been designed and executed well across various mediums to ensure Pan India, pan audience participation.
9. Contextuality was built into the campaign. E.g. The campaign was extensively promoted on a leading matrimonial site wherein willingness to share the load was introduced in the matchmaking decision
10. Defining the target audience is important basis which the medium to promote it on has to be chosen. E.g. while creating the buzz on leading matrimonial portal, the target audience was identified as both men and women between 25-44 years residing in the top 6 metros

Reference material used for this case study:-

1. http://www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/34514363/share-the-load/ariel-matic
2. http://www.financialexpress.com/article/industry/companies/ariel-share-the-load-campaign-dhobi-ghat/41003/
3. http://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/art-and-culture/2015/02/11/Women-as-laundresses-a-washed-up-attitude-Indian-detergent-ad-thinks-so.html
4. http://www.afaqs.com/news/story/43152_Ariel-Share-The-Load-campaign
5. http://lighthouseinsights.in/ariel-islaundryonlyawomansjob-sharetheload.html/