How Kleenex Showed the Beauty in Bogies
One thing about brands is that they love to talk about ‘human’ moments but very few of them would be keen on showing us a little girl’s snot running down her face as she’s glued to the TV. Or a baby wiping their bogies in mum’s hair. Or a student, quietly using her scarf as a tissue.
This is exactly what Kleenex and FCB Inferno did for their new ‘Save the Sleeve’ campaign for Kleenex Balsam tissues, running on TV, VOD, social, digital and OOH. The brand’s research showed that although we all find tissues useful, we tend to reach for substitutes in the most crucial moments (like a sneeze in a full elevator). In its own right the campaign became a movement to save the sleeve, your trousers, scarf, hair, or whatever else people might be inclined to use to wipe their nose.
With different approaches across channels and a variety of quirky bits of copy, the campaign encourages people to ‘Grab a Kleenex’ over anything else and strikes the perfect balance between wholesome and humorous. Kleenex proudly admits that the brand lives within those moments of life that most brands would be hesitant to relate themselves with - this is why they have decided to end the skirting around the truth, and get to the point.
LBB’s Zoe Antonov spoke to FCB Inferno’s strategy director Lucie Newlan and creative directors Ben Usher and Rob Farren, as well as Matt Stone, Kimberly-Clark Marketing Director UK & Ireland, about how they reached the desired audiences, and how they maintained the tongue-in-cheek humour throughout the campaign platform.
LBB> What was the brief for this campaign and what ideas did the team come up with initially?
Ben> We all know Kleenex - it’s synonymous with great tissues, but it was in danger of becoming part of the furniture. We wanted the brand to be bolder and make people feel something again. We created the new ‘Grab Kleenex’ creative platform with our global agency and client teams last year. It’s all about making people realise that life is messy, so you should be prepared with Kleenex.
Lucie> This specific brief was focussed on the use of inferior substitutes. We’ve all done it, wiped snot onto our trousers, blown our nose into flimsy napkins, used whatever was at hand instead of a tissue. We wanted to playfully remind people that if you had a Kleenex on you, you’d be more ready for whatever life throws at you.
Matt, Kleenex> The brief for this programme was to jolt consumers into being more prepared with Kleenex. Most people know tissues are useful and a lot of people use them, but equally most people don’t have them to hand when life’s messes occur, leaving them exposed or needing to reach for whatever is nearby. It was therefore critical that we find creative ways to inspire preparation – so in essence it was a brief to use the power of creative to inspire behavioural adoption and avoid the need for substitutes…like your sleeve. We felt that one of the best ways to stand out and jolt consumers was to give it a sense of mission – we want to save the nation’s sleeves – and the logical solution is Kleenex.
LBB> How creatively involved was Kleenex in the creation of the campaign?
Matt, Kleenex> We have been engendering a close, collaborative working relationship with FCB for a while, which has been reaping benefits. I’d hope that we’re close enough to find useful nuggets of insight or inspiration in our discussions, but far enough away to respect the creative process. Many times, we’ve found discussions on insights around usage and behaviours have triggered a creative thought for the team.
LBB> What kind of research informed the approach for this campaign and what did you want to achieve?
Matt, Kleenex> A lot of the insight behind this stems from understanding what people do and how they feel when they don’t have access to a tissue. Feelings of embarrassment, disgust, vulnerability and discomfort, if only for a fleeting moment, were pretty consistent in our understanding. These helped us find real human tensions in small moments of need, which for the creative process were incredibly useful. Generally, when we aren’t prepared for mess or our own bodily functions, we feel exposed and are forced to compensate, which often leaves us feeling a little more exposed. Whereas the simple availability of a tissue in those moments helps people feel in control.
LBB> 'Save the Sleeve' is very a simple, yet effective catch phrase - how did you come up with it?
Rob> When we were coming up with work for the Grab Kleenex platform, teams from London and the US were all writing ads to see how it could come to life. One headline, on a picture of a little boy wiping his nose, was ‘Save the Sleeve’. It sat in a drawer for a while, until this brief about substitutes came in. We just kept coming back to it, because it felt like it could be bigger than a press ad. It could be a rallying cry, to encourage everyone to get ready with tissues, rather than wiping on whatever was at hand.
LBB> What was the process of creating the different scenarios where one would need a Kleenex?
Ben> To be honest it was trial and error! We made a huge long gross list of moments in our own lives where we had used something else instead of a tissue. We spoke to clients, colleagues, friends and family. Then we started to whittle the list down based on what felt like universal moments that would resonate with everyone. Finally we got it down to six moments that felt true to all of us, and that covered different tissue substitutes.
LBB> There is a certain level of bravery that is needed to portray the truth about why we need tissues - it's because snot runs down our face otherwise. But why did you decide that this is worth doing for that campaign and especially why did you decide to approach it in a comedic way?
Matt, Kleenex> Honestly, I think we’ve been skirting around what our product is used for far too long, and that’s left us at risk of being wallpaper. We live in moments most brands don’t want to be associated with, which we’re embracing as an opportunity to cut through and stand out. We’re finding there’s real relatability and natural tension in reflecting life’s messes – and our point of view is that if you’re prepared you can find humour and warmth within the moment. So in many ways, it’s necessary to drive behaviour change and, critically, to stand out and be distinct.
Rob> The attitude behind Grab Kleenex is ‘Life is messy. Bring it on.’ Humour is a big part of that. We don’t want to be negative or too serious about everyday messes, because they are a fundamental part of life. By using observational wit, and building the tension, like simply looking at a shiny bit of snot on a little girl’s nose, we can make the viewer realise they need a tissue in a disarming way.
LBB> Tell me about the usage of music and sound in the ads.
Ben> Well in one of our ads, we don’t use music at all. We simply see a little girl watching cartoons on TV, hear the contextual sounds of the tv, and her hand rubbing the snot from her nose onto her pyjamas. It’s a way of standing out in a crowded ad break, by letting nothing happen for longer than a viewer is comfortable with.
Rob> For the ad which shows multiple people using substitutes, like trousers, sleeves and napkins, it felt like we did need music as a kind of glue, to make sure the viewer got the tone we were going for. We tried lots of musical genres, from modern pop, electro, to classical, but there was something about the timelessness of a 1950s jazz track that seemed to bring it all together. It was a bit quirky, which helped add to the humour, and we worked with a great sound engineer (James Everett at No.8) to embed the music into the different scenes, so it sounds like lift music in the lift, or gets muffled by a window in a café. The end result feels less ‘addy’ and more natural, which we loved.
LBB> What was the target audience and how did you make sure to reach it?
Lucie> The use of substitutes for tissues is pretty universal. Everyone from kids to adults wipes their noses on their sleeves! But we did have a key audience of young families, because our research showed they are the ones who are most likely to be in messy moments, but are least likely to buy tissues.
We reached our audience in a variety of ways. Broadcast is a great way to set the tone, reach the whole nation, and make it feel like we are starting a movement to ‘Save the Sleeve’. Then, across social we created short form targeted content, with witty lines like ‘No one likes backseat sneezing’ on a young woman sneezing in a car. It meant we could be relevant in just a few seconds. We created OOH in places where you were more likely to be unprepared, and need to ‘Grab Kleenex’, like on the commute, or out shopping. Finally we created dynamic OOH to be even more contextually relevant, using triggers like time of day, ‘Is your nose the boss of you?’ on the way into work in the morning, or even temperature, ‘When it’s too cold to act cool’ on a visual of a teenager wiping snot on his trousers on a winter’s day.
LBB> How did you manage to develop strong characters and storylines without any script?
Ben> There’s real creative power in reflecting moments that feel true to people. By showing human, relatable moments that we all instinctively recognize, we didn’t need to add dialogue, or voice over, or other creative techniques that would make Save the Sleeve feel like traditional advertising. Not many brands would dare show that there can be beauty in a bogey hanging off a little girl’s nose, so it’s great to work with clients who appreciate that sometimes showing the need for your product, is more powerful than telling people about it. That’s what we wanted to do with the ‘Save the Sleeve’ campaign. First make you smile as you see these raw, sometimes gross human behaviours in all their glory. And then make you realise that maybe you need a Kleenex in your pocket more than you thought.
LBB> What are your hopes for this new platform?
Matt> Grab Kleenex is an enduring platform for us. We hope it will enable the brand to be distinct, to have a sharper point of view and to bring some wit, warmth and relatability to our brand. Ultimately, we want to leverage it to inspire preparation, so that people can be ready to face life’s messes.
