Challenge

At the end of 2019 Zoflora was the market leader in disinfectants in the UK. It had a very loyal following and it was showing continuous growth, despite never having done mass communication. Yet, its awareness and penetration were way lower than you’d expect for a market leader. The brand’s success was actually driven by a small group of people who bought a lot of it. And when we say a lot, we really mean it: they had cupboards full of it.

Growth could no more come from this heavy users base. The brand needed to reach new audiences. Not an easy task, considering that cleaning and disinfection is an incredibly competitive category, full of household names. Even more difficult when your brand has a colourful packaging that looks nothing like a disinfectant product, and a unique concentrated liquid format which is very different from the more common trigger sprays. So people either don’t notice the brand or have no clue what it is about.

Insight

Would you ever expect people to obsess about a disinfectant brand? Well, people do with Zoflora. Its lovers, who call themselves ‘Zoflora addicts’, even refer to using the brand as ‘Zofloring’. Not cleaning or disinfecting, but something different: an overall more uplifting and rewarding experience.

We ourselves felt the same when using the product. Zoflora is truly one-of-a-kind and almost stands in a category of its own.

Strategy and approach

We embraced the brand’s uniqueness. Thanks to its amazing fragrances and distinctive look and feel Zoflora brings a touch of joy and glamour to the functional and power focused disinfection category. And it delivers a surprisingly different and uplifting experience. This is what we set out to celebrate. That it is not cleaning nor disinfecting. It is more than that. It’s Zofloring.

Solution

We brought to life our strategy via the idea that whatever Zoflora does, it does it more beautifully than its competitors. We set the brand apart from the almost clinical nature of the category norms, presenting it as a more feminine, fun, and inspiring brand.

We used distinctive creative that breaks category conventions, showing very little cleaning action and using explosions of ingredients – shot entirely in camera to make it look more authentic - to deliver the amazing Zoflora fragrances. All wrapped up in the ‘Kills germs beautifully’ end line.

The campaign was supported by an impressive media budget to reach 82% of the target audience 17 times. It launched with a 60 second prime time Saturday evening spots on ITV and was then followed by 30 second TV ads.

The integrated campaign strategy and creative informed what ran across several advertising channels such as VOD, Print and media partnerships with the Daily Mail where the focus was on demonstrating the beautiful nature of the campaign and distributing sampling coupons.

Below the line we used audience targeted dynamic digital display ads that featured different imagery and messaging that reflected the needs of the individual audience profiles. We also choose some stand our high impact creative formats that really disrupted peoples online behaviour. KGB is now used as a sign off animation on most creative, and influences the way in which fragrance notes are depicted (more explosions and bursts)

The strategy was then rolled out by the agency group into social campaigns designed to engage new users coming into the brand, as well as engage with existing users. A KGB interactive game was created based on the highly popular “Fruit Ninja”, where we used scenes from the TV ad and had germs flying through the screen, where participants had to swipe the germs to make them explode into bursts of petals. Participants were awarded with discount codes and prizes and encouraged to enter every day. Competitions also ran to encourage sharing with entry requiring to tag a friend. Influencer boxes were sent out that used the KGB key visuals to layer up with the TVC, and we sent typical film items to present the ad as a cinema screening (popcorn, drinks etc 

The website was redesigned to coincide with the launch to build on the campaign principles and echo the new brand Tov and visual language with each product now being surrounded by a burst/explosion of fragrance notes.

To drive sales instore there were several POS executions tactically targeted to retailers including gondola ends in home Bargains and FSDUs in Boots all that broke the cleaning aisle norms by featuring burst of fragrance.

Results and learning

The campaign was launched just over a year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a massive increase in penetration and sales for the disinfectant category, including Zoflora, as people became obsessed with fighting germs and stocked up on products. By the beginning of 2021, though, the category’s growth was slowing down and Zoflora’s sales and penetration were in decline (need to double check).

But being brave and breaking category norms proved successful for Zoflora, as the campaign reversed the brand’s decline. Comparing the 4 weeks after launch with the 4 weeks before launch, Zoflora’s value share grew 8.2%, value sales grew 3% and 4 week penetration grew by an incredible 50%.