Andrex: TV gets comfortable with toileting

Key Points

• Andrex has been the nation’s favourite toilet paper since 1959. Despite its market leading position, household penetration was on the decline. People were turning to cheaper alternatives, discounters and challenger brands in the space. With a new brand platform of ‘Get Comfortable’, Andrex wanted to reverse the penetration decline the best they could.
• With a three phase plan, TV was the only channel that would deliver the necessary scale and reach, generating co-viewing moments. TV would evoke emotion and was a proven driver of volume for a business. Throw in a partnership between Bowel Cancer UK and Celebrity Big Brother and you’re onto a winner.
• Increases in top of mind awareness, consideration and purchase intent among non-customers, Celebrity Big Brother partnership saw a 10 percentage point increase in brand preference and purchase intent. Reversed decline in household penetration leading to a record breaking media contribution to sales for 3 consecutive quarters.

The Challenge

Andrex has been the nation’s favourite toilet paper brand since 1959, with the iconic puppy being the standard bearer for comfort, care and quality in homes up and down the country. Thanks to being the market leader, Andrex have long commanded a price premium. However, household penetration has been on the decline for several years, as a result of inflation in the market driving consumers to own brands, discounters and direct to consumer challenger brands. These brands were offering copycat products at cheaper prices. Andrex had relied on the long standing, rational product proof points alone, but these were no longer enough to drive sales. For the brand to maintain leadership in the category and return to growth, it needed to transform a product people bought to a brand people bought into.

This was happening against a backdrop that saw the brand encountering a wider problem. Consumers were completely disengaged with the category, and the disengagement ran much deeper than just the consumer’s choice of toilet paper. Bespoke research highlighted that the nation were deeply embarrassed by toilet talk. Toilet paper brands had been hiding behind mascots rather than tackling the challenge head on; they had failed to create a safe space to talk about toileting. Enter Andrex’s new brand platform, Get Comfortable; transforming the Andrex Puppy to a beacon of empowerment. And as a result, Andrex tasked media agency PHD Media with objectives around increasing household penetration and getting the nation talking about toileting.

The TV Solution

Armed with clear objectives, some world beating insights and a powerful new brand platform, PHD got to work in crafting an approach that would deliver for Andrex. Firstly, PHD broke down the challenge into 3 distinct phases. The first phase was all about celebrating how ‘confidence starts from the bottom up’, provoking people to confront their intimate wellness. This meant they needed to raise awareness for the ‘Get Comfortable’ brand platform. The second phase was about getting the nation taking one ‘ridiculously confident’ toileting action. This meant that PHD needed to build the association between Andrex and healthy toileting. And the final phase was about getting people to buy Andrex as the first step to unlocking ‘ridiculous confidence’, communicating specific product benefits to drive purchase of the product.

With each phase having unique challenges, it was clear to PHD that only one channel would deliver, and that was TV. They felt that it was perfectly positioned to support each of the phases and allow Andrex to deliver against its goals. Firstly, TV offers scale and reach, which remains unbeatable and its premium, broadcast quality content on a big screen would generate the greatest co-viewing of any form of video. This would allow the brand to build fame for the Get Comfortable brand platform. Secondly, TV was viewed as the perfect canvas for emotional storytelling. Ads on TV evoke emotion and are more trusted than any other media channel. And finally, TV was seen as a proven volume driver for business in both the short and long term. By leveraging retail data, Andrex would be able to identify and consistently reach competitors’ customers and lapsed buyers, as well as shoppers most likely to pay extra for the premium product, driving incremental sales.

The Plan

With a strategic approach that would place TV front and centre, PHD and Andrex began to put their plan into action. PHD started to pull all the possible levers to maximise reach and raise awareness of the ‘Get Comfortable’ brand platform right from launch. The campaign kicked off with TV deployed to build rapid national coverage. The campaign started on the week commencing 25^th March with 80 TVRs supporting the 60” solus spots that would build rapid reach and emotional engagement with the nation through the long form creative.

After successfully launching the campaign with impact, PHD dropped to a 30” time length which ran from week 2 onwards. This activity was pulsed at lower weights across April and May to maintain ad stock, keeping Andrex front of mind. This approach was repeated for burst 2 across July and August, when a new creative was introduced. In the third burst of the year, PHD used a mix of 30” and 20” creative to maximise efficiency.

Away from linear, PHD deployed a holistic VOD plan that consisted of BVOD, AVOD, CTV, OLV and Addressable TV. This was designed to deliver cost effective incremental reach against lighter TV viewers, overcoming the fragmentation of viewing, thus making the new brand platform truly unmissable. Samba TV and Sky AdSmart data were leveraged to identify and target households unexposed to the TV campaign while Nectar, Dunnhumby, Ocado and Amazon data were used to identify high affinity shopper segments, shoppers most likely to pay the price premium for the product. One thing that was key to Andrex was a focus on ensuring that the campaign was inclusive. YouGov Brand Index data demonstrated that Andrex had lower awareness and consideration levels with South Asian and Black communities vs the rest of the population. PHD looked to close this gap by consciously reaching these ethnically diverse groups through Community TV stations that didn’t fall within the brand’s mainstream linear buys. The creative deployed against each audience was optimised to each community’s cultural sensitivities, making it truly unmissable.

After the campaign was successfully launched, PHD moved to the next phase of the campaign. This saw Andrex partner with ITV to turn toilet taboos into talk-worthy topics with Bowel Cancer UK. Bowel Cancer UK and Andrex approached ITV together to spark conversations on as public platform as possible and overcome British awkwardness around talking about poo. The solution came in the form of Big Brother’s iconic diary room - the ultimate safe space, where housemates felt comfortable opening up to the whole nation about anything. Working with ITV, a co-branded creative was produced featuring influential talent like bowel cancer survivor and Celebrity Big Brother housemate, Sharon Osborne, talking about their toilet habits while sitting in a bespoke throne made of Andrex toilet tissue. The creative aired in Celebrity Big Brother’s final week and was amplified across VOD, social and the Big Brother app, fuelling online conversation.

The final phase of the campaign was all about converting viewers into buyers for Andrex. This saw PHD fuse retail data with high attention, premium video inventory to reach and convert the priority growth audiences to drive incremental sales. Across BVOD, AVOD and CTV, Andrex linked up with four key retail partners in Nectar, Dunnhumby, Ocado and Amazon, to build audience segments they believed would unlock household penetration growth. Retail purchase data identified Andrex Lapsers, Basket Model Lookalikes and Category Lapsers as the key audiences. As a result, Andrex served these audiences product led creatives to showcase the brand as the best solution for healthier toilet habits; building on the brand led messaging that all potential customers had seen. In Q4, PHD and Andrex introduced an Ad Pause format across BVOD to bring the product messaging to life in a contextually relevant moment when many were nipping to the toilet. QR codes on the Ad Pause format directed customers to Andrex’s Tesco store listings, where they could go on and add the product to their basket, once they were back in front of the TV.

Results

The approach from PHD that leveraged the full scope of TV was a roaring success for Andrex, showing uplifts across the board in key brand metrics. The Linear TV, VOD and OLV elements of the campaign showed increases in top of mind awareness, consideration and purchase intent among non-customers. The partnership with Celebrity Big Brother drove a massive 10 percent point uplift in brand preference and purchase intent for Andrex. Along with this, the brand was able to see uplifts around the statement that Andrex was ‘making a difference’.

From a business point of view, the campaign was again a massive success for the brand. The approach saw AV account for the majority of media driven sales volume in 2024. This was shown throughout 2024 with TV spot and BVOD being the most effective paid media channel overall, delivering a record breaking media contribution to sales for 3 consecutive quarters. With the overall goal of reversing household penetration decline, Andrex saw year on year growth, bucking the trend of the category, which was in decline.

Databank

Sector: FMCG

Brand: Andrex

Campaign objectives: Drive Consideration, increase sales

Target Audience: Broad

Budget: £8 Million (Nielsen Ad Intel)

Campaign Dates: March-December 2024

TV Usage: Spot and Partnership, 20” and 30”

Creative Agency: FCB London

Media Agency: PHD Media