900 million traditional plastic laundry jugs end up in oceans and landfills every year. This is a critical issue because plastics release harmful compounds throughout their lifecycle, leading to widespread environmental contamination, health hazards, and irreversible pollution that endanger human health and the earth's ecosystem. Addressing this escalating problem is essential to protecting our planet and future generations, but unfortunately, we can’t recycle our way out of it.*
That’s why Tru Earth was founded five years ago – not just as a brand but a B Corp-certified movement – to combat single-use plastic pollution by creating innovative cleaning products, like laundry detergent Eco-Strips®, to help people more easily make a sustainable change in their daily lives while getting the clean results they desire. For every package of 32 laundry eco-strips purchased from Tru Earth, one plastic container is prevented from entering landfills or oceans. With the average American family doing 300 loads of laundry per year, individuals can make a massive impact through one small switch, they just need to know this option is out there.
Despite having created such a simple and meaningful solution, Tru Earth’s brand awareness was extremely low: .05 percent, according to the brand’s research. We knew we had to go big with an idea and execution that would get audiences talking, cut through the clutter and compel them to try Tru Earth.
*https://www.nrdc.org/bio/avinash-kar/what-you-need-know-about-plastic-crisis
The world of laundry strips looks largely the same, and when everything looks the same, it’s easy to ignore. From a competitive audit, we identified the category was fairly dry, with various brands delivering repetative messages around efficacy and environmental benefits.
Confirming the target audience was simple: research shows that 78% of women are the primary household shoppers. Furthermore, millennials and Gen Xers are increasingly eco-conscious, with a Nielsen study indicating that 75% of millennials are willing to pay more for sustainable products, a sentiment echoed by Gen X consumers. So, Tru Earth elected to target Millennial and Gen X moms who are not only looking for effective products but also those that align with their values of health and sustainability.
We needed a different approach that would break through the boredom to catch – and capture – attention long enough to deliver our message.
Given our goal was to make affluent Gen X moms aware of Tru Earth as an eco-conscious cleaning brand, to breakthrough, we knew we needed to:
● Generate mass awareness for the brand through bold creative.
● Educate consumers on Tru Earth’s mission and product benefits through integrated communications.
● Highlight Tru Earth’s B Corp status to continue building visibility and credibility as a leader in sustainability.
To stand out, we focused on the most fun part of laundry day, the part when clothes come off, building our campaign around stripping… the world of single-use plastics.
Knowing our audience, we needed to cast the right talent to star in our campaign’s hero content piece—someone with enough crossover appeal to Gen X and Millennials, and who could disrupt the common mom or female social media influencer paradigm.
So, we enlisted award-winning actor Taye Diggs, known for his suave persona, because of his appeal to our target audience: 25 to 50-year-old moms. According to Tagger, 74% of Taye’s audience is female and 75% are 25-54 years old.
His charming, humorous personality made him the perfect match for the campaign, and his social and earned media appeal meant we’d reach our target across the outlets and channels they pay attention to.
To create a meaningful impact, we deployed a three-phase campaign
There was a lot of clutter to break through, not only with other sustainable brands looking to capitalize on Earth Month but also a “sea of sameness” among laundry strip competitors, so we used bold, eye-catching tactics to pique, and keep, people’s hard-won attention.
The creative was such a bold and successful starting point that we expanded it into our Plastic Free July campaign, where we showed normal people “stripping” in a laundromat.
Tru Earth achieved remarkable results via social engagement, media coverage and sales, most notably, a 100% increase in retail sales YOY.
Ads garnered 40+ million paid impressions, propelling a 70% YOY increase in retail store units. Instacart display ads delivered a 2.4x return, while email marketing saw a 4.7% increase in order rates compared to the previous period.
YouTube delivered a CPM of just $6 and enhanced engagement/view rates in the US nearing 10%. Instagram also excelled, achieving high CPMs with benchmark CTR efficiencies and an impressive 11% thumbstop rate.
The “Give a Strip" Instagram post was the brand's highest-performing content with an engagement rate of 9%, vs the brand's baseline of 0.07%. Taye's posts also outperformed his previous paid content and received overwhelmingly positive feedback, with 99% positive sentiment and comments like, "Love this!!! And these laundry sheets & strips are amazing! #LetsSaveThePlanetYall" and "The best AD!! Where do I buy!!! 😂😂😂😂".
The campaign generated over 320 million media impressions, in major outlets meaningful to our target consumers, including OK!, The Healthy, and The Weather Channel. ABCNews.com highlighted the power of celebrity endorsements on environmental issues spotlighting this campaign, aligning perfectly with our goal of becoming a top talked-about brand.
Tru Earth’s founder also received the most calls from prospective investors, ever, on the heels of this campaign.
And of course, all of these sales numbers and brand awareness growth translated into one result: less plastic ending up in our oceans and landfills.
