During the extreme upheaval of daily life in the spring of 2020, millions of kids and parents found themselves at home. All day. And that meant all of their learning was taking place in the home. Kitchens became classrooms and parents became teachers. This new dynamic was a tiresome challenge, but also presented an opportune moment for children everywhere to learn life skills that have proven benefits well into adulthood.
That’s why Whirlpool brand stepped in to lend a helping hand with the creation of Chore Club, turning everyday chores into fun ways to teach everyday lessons.
The social media campaign aimed to reach parents where they were spending time consuming content and sought to provide a little help in a strange time when we all needed some. Not only would the activities in Chore Club make chores part of their children’s new stay at home learning routine, it would give children the stability they crave while allowing them to learn vital life skills.
Whirlpool brand believes that the everyday acts of care that happen at home have a positive impact on the world we live in. That is why we are committed to helping families thrive in their daily life.
When it comes to thriving, studies show that kids who do chores from a young age are more likely to have academic, emotional and professional success later in life. But, while 82% of adults reported having regular chores growing up, only 28% said they require their own children to do chores. (SOURCE)
If we’re going to break through with the importance of getting kids involved in chores, we needed to meet parents where they were spending time and seeking out inspiration. At the end of March, one third of US social media users reported spending 1-2 more hours per day on social media sites due to the pandemic. And it wasn't just one platform showing heavy usage. It was all of them. And Pinterest was seeing record engagement with searches up 60% YoY with a 25% increase since just the two weeks before lockdown. (SOURCE)
Taking a closer look at what parents were searching for, we noticed one key behavior: they were searching for solutions. Here are a few examples:
· 128% increase in "easy lunch ideas for kids"
· 10x increase in "family activities at home"
· 7x increase in "baking with kids"
· 8x increase in "things to do when bored for kids"
· 124x increase in "homeschool schedule"
· 128% increase in "easy lunch ideas
Armed with the knowledge of the long-term benefits of chores and witnessing clear signals that people were in need of help, we devised a program to help parents put that power to good use.
Using educational and developmental research, we crafted at-home activities based in cooking, cleaning, and washing (our specialty) that also instilled new skills, such as learning Spanish while unloading the dishwasher, practicing math while making lunch, and learning responsibility when sanitizing toys.
The educational content came to life in short-form videos, static pins and carousels, all published with search optimized copy leveraging the trending keywords, and the content was also housed on custom destination on Whirlpool.com.
Within less than two weeks from the nation going into lockdown, all while needing to adapt to a new remote way of working and the new homeschool schedule (many of us being parents ourselves), Whirlpool brand partnered with Digitas to stand up an entire program that provided meaningful assistance to parents in need and positioned Whirlpool as a resource that helps families thrive.
The Chore Club by Whirlpool brand campaign made for some of the brand’s most engaged content in over a year, surpassing industry engagement benchmarks provided by the platforms by over 20% and achieved nearly 20 million impressions.
