Since 2021, Clorox has built a distinctive voice on #CleanTok as an integral place to tell its story and provide engaging, social-native cleaning resources for consumers. What began as a space to celebrate the joy of cleaning quickly evolved—especially as COVID shifted consumer focus toward disinfection—into a distinctive brand voice that authentically resonated with younger audiences.
In 2025, Clorox recognized how consumers engage on social media had evolved, and Clorox's approach needed to as well. The brand transformed its digital presence into a search-powered, culturally relevant communication engine ensuring cleaning wasn’t just visible, but rooted in consumer behavior. Ketchum helped Clorox hack the algorithm and give consumers what they were searching for most.
Clorox set out to reinforce brand authority with younger audiences, increase engagement across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts through search-powered content, and measure success through authentic, two-way conversations. By pairing data‑driven agility with cultural relevance, Clorox positioned itself as both a trusted cleaning authority and an active, relatable voice within the community.
Rooted our Plan in Research & Insights
We uncovered three powerful consumer truths that shaped our strategy. Through social listening, seasonal search analysis, keyword trend research and platform analytics, we discovered that audiences craved authentic, behind-the-scenes content over polished ads; short-form videos featuring cleaning hacks and satisfying transformations drove exceptional engagement; and timely, culturally relevant moments, especially infused with humor, generated the strongest interaction spikes.
From there, a critical whitespace emerged: while competitors posted about cleaning, few connected it to emotional well-being. Social listening revealed rising conversations around "mental wellness through cleaning" among Gen Z and Millennials, representing an untapped opportunity.
To validate findings, we commissioned quick-turn polls and A/B tested content formats, measuring real-time reactions and iterating rapidly. Creator-led myth-busting videos not only broadened reach but also boosted brand trust, proving the value of authentic, expert-driven content. Competitive benchmarking also confirmed that brands leaning into educational entertainment significantly outperformed others, validating our strategic direction. Additionally, YouTube emerged as a unique strategic advantage —influencing generative search, over-indexing with our target audience and underutilized by competitors. By activating both long-form storytelling and Shorts on YouTube, Clorox tapped into a genuine opportunity.
Strategic Pillars & Execution
Guided by five core pillars, we transformed social into a dynamic, two-way conversation—elevating Clorox from a product people use to a brand actively participating in their daily lives:
Search Optimization: Shape content through real-time, seasonal and historical search data to ensure visibility at critical moments.
Authentic Storytelling: Leverage creators alongside Clorox's R&D scientists to share digestible cleaning stories and science-backed tips that resonate with audiences seeking credibility.
Platform-Native Creativity: Tailor content to each platform’s language (memes, trending audio, formats and keywords), maximizing discoverability across channels.
Cultural Agility: Monitor trends constantly, reacting in real-time to viral moments and seasonal opportunities, keeping Clorox relevant and top-of-mind.
Community Building: Shift from broadcasting to dialogue through direct engagement with consumers via off-channel engagements to strengthen Clorox’s social communities
Key Features
By embedding research at every strategy stage – from ideation through optimization – we built a nimble, insight-driven content engine rooted in real consumer behavior. Success wasn't measured by vanity metrics but by the quality of engagement: meaningful comments, shares, and saves that indicated sincere connection.
The result was a bold, human and highly adaptive social strategy leveraging SEO and geo-data to ensure Clorox reached the right people at the right moments in ways that drove real recall and action. This systematic, data-backed approach transformed Clorox's social presence into a meaningful participant in consumer conversations, proving that strategic insight combined with authentic creativity creates sustained brand relevance and measurable business impact.
Clorox executed across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube through creator collaborations, short-form video optimized for algorithms, real-time cultural moments, interactive stories and polls with experts, always-on optimization and elevated community management ensuring rapid, on-brand responses to comments and DMs.
Results surpassed all objectives:
+272% engagement lift on TikTok; +23% on Instagram (YoY)
+24% positive sentiment increase; -11% negative sentiment
+15% social share of voice in home cleaning category
+27% Instagram followers; +44% TikTok followers
+31% saves and shares (content value indicators)
+19% attributable website traffic; +12% purchase intent lift
By embedding research at every stage and prioritizing authentic community‑building through proactive engagement on and off Clorox owned channels, Clorox transformed its social presence from simple product showcases into dynamic platforms that sparked conversation, inspired action and cemented its leadership across both cleaning and culture.