2009 PRO Awards: Purex Saves Green

Agency: The Dial Corporation / A Henkel Company, Marina Maher Communications & Night Agency
Client: In-House

Purex Natural Elements is an environmentally friendly value-priced laundry detergent in a very crowded market. Its target, a mom with several kids doing an average of four loads of laundry a week, wanted to help the environment without making sacrifices. The Purex Saves Green program promoted both the affordability and environmental friendliness of the Natural Elements product.

A microsite, purexsavesgreen.com, was created to educate women on green cleaning and show how Purex’ Natural Elements fulfilled that need. A contest launched on Earth Day allowed consumers to compete for the chance to win a Smart Car by creating their own green themed t-shirts.

Purex made a $30,000 donation to the nonprofit Earth Day Network (EDN) in exchange for endorsements from environmentally conscious celebrities, who agreed to make green t-shirts for an online auction to benefit EDN. Jaime Pressly (star of My Name is Earl) came on board as celebrity spokesperson and talked up the contest on a variety of interviews. Mom-focused and environmental blogs also gave the contest a plug, while online media (homepage takeovers, roadblocks, and sponsorships) were purchased to supplement the publicity.

The campaign increased sales to more than $100 million at year-end 2008, becoming number one in the category in both units and sales with a 43% share in the natural liquid detergent category.