Cassandra Spicer

COMM483
March 13, 2015
Silver Anvil Case Analysis:
Dont Cry Over IckLaugh It Up With Clorox

SITUATION

For the past 100 years, Clorox has primarily branded its cleaning products using
aspirational imagery in commercials and advertisements. When you thought about Clorox,
images of crisp white sheets and neatly stacked clothes in a laundry room came to mind. Clorox
marketed its products as the best solution for stains and messy situations along with the mantra,
Now you see it, now you dont. Although these methods were effective in the past, current
market research showed that consumer behavior was changing.
As Clorox entered its centennial year in 2013, it was
clear that modern-day consumers had different cleaning
behaviors than their parents or grandparents did. To these new
consumers, Clorox was a brand of the past. Unlike the previous
generation of hard-scrubbing cleaners, younger consumers
rather enjoy life instead of spending hours cleaning up messes.
They did not understand how Clorox cleaning products could
fit into their lives and ultimately help them save them less time
cleaning and spend more time having fun. Clorox needed to make its brand and line of products
relevant to the new generation of cleaners, which the company dubbed Newly Responsibles.
Based on Jacksons criteria, the decline in popularity of Clorox products among todays
consumers is a real problem. Market research showed that modern day consumers were not
purchasing Clorox products as frequently as previous generations did. The Clorox brand lacked
relevancy among Newly Responsibles, which led to a decline in product sales. Although there
was no immediate need to act, in order to secure long-term stability as a company, Clorox needed
to be rebranded. Because modern consumers viewed Clorox as a brand of the past, Clorox had to
find a way to relate to Newly Responsibles, to join the conversation about mess in a fun and
hilarious way, and to insert itself a solution. Clorox did this by executing both on- and off-line
strategies to structure a campaign that would appeal to younger consumers.
Because this campaign required rebranding the company as a whole and redesigning
online properties, I would imagine the team in charge of the campaign conducted an analysis of
the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats prior to beginning the planning process,
however, it was never explicitly stated. Employees and stakeholders had the most as stake
because if the campaign were not received well by consumers, the company would continue to
become less relevant and product sales would continue to decrease, which would affect
relationships with both publics.
This campaign was executed with the help of Ketchum, a global public relations firm,
and TH productions, a marketing and event production agency that Clorox used to plan events
and activate the campaign. Ketchums team helped Clorox develop the Ick-Tionary language
and the promotional activities for that aspect of the campaign. With the launch of Cloroxs new
website, icktionary.com, TH productions created the Clorox Ick-tionary Glass Truck to bring
the website to life in an accompanying on-ground promotional tour.

RESEARCH
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For this campaign, Clorox targeted millennials, people reaching adulthood around the
year 2000, and modern moms and dads who constantly take on new responsibilities. These
Newly Responsibles ranged from 25-35 years old and were known to heavily consume media
and frequently use social media.
Clorox used SocialChorus, an advocate marketing company, and Wildfire Interactive, a
social media marketing company, to conduct primary, formal research that would help the
company understand how to target younger consumers effectively. According to the research
provided by Wildfire Interactive, 48 percent of consumers believe that social media posts are a
good way to discover products, brands, trends or retailers. Unsurprisingly, most millennials rely
heavily on social postings from network influencers to gather information, discover new
products and make purchasing decisions. Research gathered from SocialChorus stated that only 6
percent of millennials believe online advertising is credible. Additionally, millennials are the
largest group of social networking users compared to other generations, and they have the
highest corresponding Facebook and Twitter use rates. In fact, more than 50 percent of Twitter
users in the United States are millennials.
The research conducted for this campaign showed that most modern day parents were not
afraid to talk about lifes dirty messes. Newly Responsibles experienced the same messy
situations as older generations did, however, they handled these messes differently. Many
modern day consumers took to the Internet and social media to document and share their messes.
If a baby throws its food all over the floor, the modern mom will undoubtedly pull her iPhone out
and snap a picture.
In order to successfully market to millennials, Clorox had to market with them rather
than to them. Marketing research showed that social media is ingrained in the social fabric of
Millennials. For brands to properly engage with these consumers, they have to leverage social
networking platforms and create content that ignites conversation. I believe this research was
effective in shaping the campaign because it showed Clorox that just putting content online
would not constitute as effective marketing toward Millennials. In order to properly engage with
younger consumers, Clorox had to join the conversation with consumers in a fun and genuine
way instead of marketing how great its products are.
Ultimately, Clorox discovered that even though messy situations were still just as
common, people werent discussing how to clean them up in a way that can be laughed at later.
The branding team decided to use humor and social media to change the perception modern
consumers have of the company and make Clorox more relevant to todays generation of
consumers.
I think that Clorox could have conducted more research on what types of messages (how
you structure them) are the most effective for each social networking platform in order to
effectively market to younger consumers. Additionally, the research only presents information
about Twitter and Facebook, which are popular among Millennials, however, there are numerous
other platforms, such as Snapchat and Instagram, that Clorox could have used for its campaign.

PLANNING
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Ketchum identified publics, messages, goals, strategies and objectives prior to executing
the campaign. Newly Responsibles are the primary publics because they are the next generation
of cleaners and consumers. Cloroxs employees were the secondary publics because they are
brand ambassadors and they would be affected the most if the campaign were unsuccessful. The
goal of the campaign, which was explicitly stated, was to make the Clorox brand and line of
products relevant to modern-day cleaners. Rather than solely promoting the product, Clorox
needed to join the conversation on mess and by spreading the message that its products are
solutions to making mess more fun and laughable. To achieve this goal, Clorox divided its
objectives into two categories: communication and business. The communication objectives were
to:
1. Increase conversation volume about Clorox by 100 percent
2. Create a stronger connection between Clorox and messes online (increase
correlation by 50 percent)
3. Increase engagement with/around Clorox by 75 percent
4. Increase product use intent by 5 percent
These objectives flow directly from Cloroxs overall goal of appealing to younger consumers. By
increasing online conversation and engagement around Clorox, the brand would become more
favorable among Newly Responsibles. Cloroxs business objectives aimed to:
1.
2.

Increase purchase intent by 5 percent

Increase brand favorability by 5 percent

While these objectives were appropriate for the campaign, they did not meet all the
criterion of SMART objectives. The objectives were measurable, attainable, realistic, and
specific, however, they were not time-bound. It was unclear as to when Clorox hoped to reach
these objectives. The Clorox and Ketchum campaign team should have provided specific time
limits so there is a clear finishing point for each of these objectives. Both the business and
communication objectives exemplified outcome objectives, which aim to achieve a change in the
identified publics awareness, attitudes and/or actions. These objectives flowed directly into its
chosen strategies.
In order to effectively target millennials and join Newly Responsibles in the
conversations about mess, Clorox implemented a social-media-based campaign that positioned
its products as the best solution to clean messy situations and make them a laughable matter.
Clorox reinforced this rebranding by redesigning all of its online properties. The campaign was
designed to encourage new consumers to see mess, hear mess, speak mess. The Clorox brand
made a bold change by embracing messy moments and structuring a campaign that reframed
mess from a negative outcome that should be avoided to something that is a natural part of a life
that is well-lived.

See Mess: Clorox encouraged Newly

Responsibles to share their messy mishaps
with the catchphrase talk dirty to me. The
campaign encouraged younger consumers to
share their stories online to drive traffic to
social media and online properties.
Hear Mess: The branding team created a
campaign that demonstrated how Clorox
products are the best solution to messy
situations. Because Newly Responsibles tend to be wary of marketing strategies and are not as
familiar with bleach products, Ketchum and Clorox had to identify partners and platforms that
were genuine and would appeal to a younger demographic. Clorox took to the streets of Sin City
with an on-the-ground campaign that encouraged consumers to share their Bleachable
Moments or lifes OMG EWW moments that only bleach can solve.
Speak Mess: Millennials love to come up with new phrases and words. Selfie, catfish, twerk,
tweep and freegan are some of the many words Millenials love to use that reflect an intersection
of pop culture, creativity and technology. The Clorox team developed a language based on mess
by building a Clorox Ick-tionary, a wiki-style dictionary of everyday ick, of several hundred
terms that would resonate and appeal to Millenials. The campaign leveraged Cloroxs online
presence and social media following to encourage modern parents to share their ick-speriences
using these messy terms. The viral, online campaign drove younger consumers online to interact
with the icky terms, share their icky experiences and learn more about how Clorox products
could fit into their everyday lives. Some of the terms Clorox and Ketchum created included:

Spillates (spil-lah-teez) Stretching exercises that tone muscles and improve

flexibility when wiping up spills under tables and on countertops
Petrifries (pet-ruh-fryz) Week-old French fries found stuck in the toddlers high
chair
Sasplotch (sass-ploch) Mysterious giant footprints through the house

Each of these strategies effectively connected the products with younger consumers in a
fun and appealing way. Within the realm of Newly Responsibles, Clorox and Ketchum hoped to
connect with new parents and other younger consumers by dividing the campaign to appeal to
both parents (Ick-tionary) and singles (Bleach It Away in Vegas).

IMPLEMENTATION

In order for Clorox to successfully join the conversation on mess and appeal to Newly
Responsibles, the company had to insert its products as solutions to cleaning up messes and
making them more fun. Clorox executed two major strategies to create a national conversation
about the brand and encourage Newly Responsibles to talk about mess and learn more about
bleach products
Clorox Ick-tionary
The Clorox and Ketchum team used celebrity appeal to connect with younger consumers
online through social media platforms and other websites. The branding team had comedians,
bloggers, and TV personalities help market their campaign and create and introduce Cloroxs
new language of mess. These individuals were known as Ick-sperts.
The company launched its Ick-tionary in April 2013 by leveraging the social media
following of the Ick-sperts to promote the campaign. Each Ick-spert shared their own made-up
words and ick-speriences with their followers on either their personal blogs or social media
accounts in conjunction with traditional media strategies executed by Clorox and Ketchum.
These strategies included:
1. Creating an ick Back to School Night viral video
2. Working with celebrity Ick-sperts Carol Leifer, an author and comedian, and Kyle
Richards, a star of Real Housewife of Beverly Hills, to conduct national media
interviews
3. Partnering with Social Moms blogger network to introduce the icky language to
consumers and reach the new Mom demographic
4. Hosting a Twitter party with How to Be a Dad, a popular parenting website, to
continue promoting the language and drive consumers to icktionary.com
5. Executing an on-the-ground campaign that brought the Ick-tionary to life through
an interactive glass truck mobile experience
The on-the-ground glass mobile truck tour
kicked of in Bethesda, MD, on April 2, 2013 to
encourage younger consumers to share their own
real-life icky experiences and drive traffic to the Icktionary website. TH productions sourced a variety of
locations with high foot traffic and areas populated
with the Clorox young family demographic to
maximize their impressions for the tour. TH created a
training manual that was used to train each staff
member participating in the tour on the products, the
website, key sound bites and each of their roles and
responsibilities on site. The mobile-truck tour included: a doodle wall for kids to express
creativity, branded oversized street scrabble, a hashtag Instagram photo booth printer, iPad
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stations with brand ambassadors promoting the Ick-tionary website, and other activities with
branded giveaways. The activation tour ended up generating 12,941,463 traditional media
impressions for Clorox Ick-tionary and 5,091,138 impressions on social media.
I believe the creation of an Ick-tionary was a creative play on words that appealed to new
parents and other younger consumers. By harnessing the power of celebrities and other
influential bloggers that had large social followings, they effectively targeted younger consumers
in a fun and interesting way.
Bleach It Away
While the strategies executed to promote the Ick-tionary focused heavily on appealing to
new parents, the campaign also targeted Newly Responsibles who may not be parents, but also
have to deal with messy situations that Clorox could solve. Clorox promoted its products in
unexpected places to encourage younger consumers to share their Bleachable Moments. The
company took its campaign to the streets of Las Vegas, the ideal place to Bleach Away lifes
messy moments. The branding team worked with Angela Kinsey, a writer and award-winning
actress, to get consumers to share their own
Bleachable Moments, on and off the Strip.
Kinsey walked the streets of Sin City and
conducted video interviews where she
encouraged people to fill in the blanks I
_______ my _______ in Vegas. Digital
billboards and taxicab toppers accompanied
the on-the-ground- activation of these
interviews to generate earned media. People
were encouraged to visit the Bleach It Away
website, share a messy moment, and enter to
win a grand prize of $15,000. Additionally, the
branding team chose a featured messy moment to spotlight on the website and the author of the
selected moment was awarded a $50 gift card. Everyone who submitted their moment instantly
received a coupon for $.50 off any bottle of Clorox Regular-Bleach through email, and fans who
submitted messy moments on Twitter using the hashtag #bleachitaway were entered into a
drawing for a $50 gift card every week. Using a backdrop of interactive advertising, the Bleach It
Away execution of the campaign employed a mix of other target-right tactics to create a national
conversation about cleaning up lifes messes. These tactics included:
1. Partnering with Someecards, a maker of humorous ecards that are popular
among Millennials to appeal to Newly Responsibles
2. Executing a Promoted Tweets campaign to enhance online visibility of
Bleachable Moments and strategically target younger consumers both on
and offline

3. Creating interactive social promotions that engage consumers and encourage

content sharing by working with target-right online influencers
In order to make sure the campaign was effective, Ketchum continuously measured
output throughout the duration of the campaign. This allowed Clorox to insert itself into
conversations that were happening in real time and determine what was working and what was
not working with its marketing and promotional strategies. Additionally, the Clorox Company
conducted social media audits and monitored with platforms, such as Gorkana Social Media Pro,
to analyze campaign progress and tweak it as necessary.
I believe all of the strategies executed by Clorox and Ketchum were successful, clever
and imaginative. They executed two different aspects of the campaign under the general theme of
all things icky. They also appealed to Millennials by partnering with celebrities, bloggers and
companies that interest that demographic. Although they did not mention how each of these
strategies affected their budget, I think each part of the campaign was an effective use of
monetary resources. I think that they could have used other social networking platforms, such as
Snapchat, to appeal to wider range of people within their targeted audience.

EVALUATION/RESULTS
Cloroxs use of the creative tagline See mess, hear mess, speak mess reinforced the
connection between Clorox and messes, inserted Clorox into the nation conversation regarding
mess, and drove interaction with Newly Responsibles by shifting their brand perception, all of
which is reflected in the evaluation measures from their research. Clorox determined the results
of the campaign a success based on the analytics and overall impressions that they gathered.
The Clorox Ick-tionary campaign took place from April to June 2013. During this time,
the national conversation around Clorox in conjunction with the terms messes and cleanup
jumped 18 percent from pre-to mid-campaign. Additionally, during the Bleach It Away
campaign, which lasted from January to March of the same year, there was a 142 percent
increase in online connections between Clorox and general messes. Consumers also confessed
more than 5,500 Bleachable Moments during the Bleach It Away campaign. These results reflect
an overall increased connection between Clorox and mess, which demonstrates the companys
success in making its brand more relevant to modern consumers and accomplishing its overall
goal.
The Ick-tionary and Bleach It Away campaign allowed Clorox to insert itself into online
conversations and increase the overall popularity of its products among all consumers. There was
a 200 percent increase in overall conversation volume about Bleachable Moments during the
Bleach It Away campaign and the company noticed an increase in popularity among the
following products during the Ick-tionary campaign:

Clorox Disinfecting Wipes: 108 percent increase

Clorox Clean-Up Cleaner with Bleach: 115 percent increase

Clorox 2 Stain Remover & Color Booster: 413 percent increase

Clorox Toilet Bowl Cleaner with Bleach: 345 percent increase
Clorox Bleach: 35 percent increase

While the number of online conversations involving Clorox increased, the targeted
consumers began to use Clorox as the solution to handling life's inevitable messes, which
accomplished Cloroxs goal of appealing to Newly Responsibles and boosting product sales. The
results of both executions of the campaign show that Clorox and Ketchum were able to drive
interaction with Newly Responsibles. The tactics executed during the Clorox Ick-tionary
campaign resulted in more than 977,385 page views for the website, 44 million overall media
impressions and more than 12 million Twitter impressions. The Bleach It Away activities led to a
247 percent increase in consumer engagement with and around Clorox, more than 63 million
overall media impressions and a No. 1 nationwide Twitter trending topic.
As a result of the campaign, PRWeek named the Clorox brand public relations team the
national runner-up for the Best In-House PR Team and Clorox earned industry recognition for
the redesign of its website. Additionally, there was an increase in purchase intent and overall
brand favorability among consumers. During the Bleach it Away campaign, there was an 8
percent increase in purchase interest among visitors to the Bleach It Away website, which
exceeded its goal of 5 percent, and visitors expressed a 10 percent increase in brand favorability.

PERSPECTIVE
I believe the Clorox Ick
campaign was very effective in using
both online and offline strategies to
appeal to younger consumers and
reinsert itself as a relevant brand with
useful products in a creative way.
Ketchum and Clorox redesigned all of
its online properties to make them
more informal, relevant and appealing
to younger consumers.
I think it was smart for Ketchum and Clorox to partner with mommy and daddy bloggers
who had large followings and were major influencers to modern-day parents. Additionally,
leveraged the celebrity status of comedians and TV personalities to generate buzz surrounding
their campaign and products. The campaign appealed to all Newly Responsibles as a whole by
executing certain strategies that would intrigue parents and others that would appeal to single,
modern-day consumers. Las Vegas served as the perfect setting for executing an on-the-ground
campaign because it is a place often associated with messy situations. One aspect I would say
they could have done differently is that they took the Bleachable Moments event to other areas of
the United States because they were only able to generate 5,500 Bleachable Moments during that

part of the campaign. I was surprised by their decision to have the start of their tour in Bethesda,
MD, because I had never heard of the campaign and I am from Bethesda. I do think it was a good
choice to visit Bethesda because it is an area filled with young families and Newly Responsibles.
I believe Clorox and Ketchum may have executed too many strategies, such as the Ick Awards
and partnering with Someecards, and all of the different strategies made the campaign less
cohesive. If they were to choose a few strategies and planned them extensively, they could make
the campaign nationally recognized.
A challenging aspect of this campaign is that by co-creating content with online
audiences in real time, it makes it more difficult to have a careful planning process. Clorox had
to make sure each new approach and in-the-moment decision was in line with its values as a
company and would not damage relationships with internal stakeholders. I also think it was hard
to determine what the actual goal of the campaign was. The original goal was to make the Clorox
brand and line of products relevant to todays generation of cleaners, however, in my opinion that
is very broad. I wondered whether Clorox wanted to drive product purchases, increase brand
awareness or enhance its online presence. I believe that they should have created more direct,
time-limited objectives to achieve a more specific goal.
Overall, I think this campaign is an excellent example of an effective campaign and
rebranding effort. I was impressed with their efforts to execute online and off-line campaign
strategies and respond to consumers conversations in real-time. I think the campaign was true to
the brand and that the extensive rebranding and marketing efforts paid off in the long run.

References

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Award Winning Marketing and PR Campaigns. (n.d.). Retrieved from The Clorox Company
Annual Report website:
http://annualreport.thecloroxcompany.com/strategy_ourStrategies_innovate_campaigns
Clorox. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.clorox.com/laugh/
The Clorox Company. (2013, February 12). Angela Kinsey and The Clorox Company Help
People _________ Their _________ in Vegas [Press release]. Retrieved from
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/angela-kinsey-and-the-clorox-company-helppeople-_________-their-_________-in-vegas-190823141.html
Clorox Ick-Tionary Tour Recap. (2013, April 30). TH Productions, 1-16.
Dont Cry Over Ick: Laugh It Up With Clorox. (2014, October 13). Retrieved from Gorkana
Group website: http://gorkana.us/news/consumer/prsa2014/don-t-cry-over-ick-laugh-itup-with-clorox/
Public Relations Society of America. (2014, September 25). Clorox Dont Cry Over Ick!
Retrieved from Comprehension website: http://comprehension.prsa.org/?p=6483
Robbins, T. (2014, October 27). Dont Cry Over Ick: How Bleachable Moments Changed the
Clorox Conversation - See more at:
http://www.burrellesluce.com/freshideas/2014/10/dont-cry-over-ick-how-bleachablemoments-changed-the-clorox-conversation/#sthash.H13QSGHB.dpuf. Retrieved from
Burrelles Luce website: http://www.burrellesluce.com/freshideas/2014/10/dont-cry-overick-how-bleachable-moments-changed-the-clorox-conversation/

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