Ask Your question on the respective brands for the London Film contest at Twitter MOFILMugc
Q: Surf is a well known brand here in the UK, what can you tell us about its global footprint?
A: A: Surf is in 40 countries , the name varies e.g. Omo, Rinso, Drive, Sunlight but its growing! It’s no 1 in the Romania, Philippines and South Africa. The Surf ambition is to be the no 1 value brand for consumers and we’re the no 2 in Unilever after our “Dirt is Good” proposition. The key differentiator for us is fragrance above cleaning as well as every other value brand. If you ask a Surf consumer in many countries what does the brand stand for, they will say Fragrance.
Q: What is the key demographic that you’re looking for?
A: 18-35 and a mother, an everyday optimist who uses her money wisely for her family’s needs. In many developing countries our consumers live on a day-to-day basis, buying a sachet of washing powder for example, every day. Surf’s ambition is that she picks us!
Q: “What sort of anchoring to reality would you expect in a Surf ad? Like, on a scale of exaggerated to complete dream”
A: You should ground your film in reality but you can move into fiction to deliver the key point, fragrance. You should not patronise our consumer or talk down to them. Ground your film in a Laundry Moment. You should ground the film actually in the “cleaning moment” and then deliver the line about great tropical fragrance, otherwise we could be mistaken for a fabric conditioner.
Q: What is unique about Surf?
A: In every country our packaging leads the world. You should use the pack shot in the asset download http://ht.ly/2yyCY If you got a laundry aisle in your local supermarket you will see how different we are to other detergents.Compared to “Dirt is Good” we don’t always take ourselves so seriously. We’re a brand that can have fun, you can have humour.
Q: The brand of surf shown on MOFILM site is not available in Pakistan. Can we use the one available here?
A: We’d prefer that you stick to the pack shots in the asset download available here: http://ht.ly/2yyP1
Q: Why have you chosen Surf Tropical as the product for this film contest?
A: In every country where it exists it’s at no 1 in our range. It took us a while to recognise this to be honest. I think the reason for this is that it’s different. Go to a laundry aisle and tell me how many bright, pink, female detergent packs you see. In South Africa we only had yellow packaging for a decade. One month ago we launched the pink variant. It’s now the fourth largest selling detergent product for all brands. In one month! Before we’ve even started advertising.
Q: If Surf was a colour what would it be?
A: I think we’re at the stage where we can unashamedly say Surf is a very pink brand!
Q: When you are judging these films, what are the most important criteria?
A: No1 It is a film about a detergent. No2 It’s a film that communicates the fragrance benefit of this tropical product. No 3 – as a brand we’re willing to take a risk and we want something that will make people take notice of our brand.
Q: what is the tone of the brand?
A: Positive, uplifting, playful, bright & colourful – more so than any other brand we think, in this category.
A: We actually sold the brand (and laundry business) in the USA in 2008 so it’s not our brand, although it’s still called Surf. The thing that ties our communication together around the world is song and dance actually.
For more information visit our website at: http://ht.ly/2yzK3 or in Romania http://ht.ly/2yzLX Dero is synonymous in Romania with the word detergent because it was the only brand in the country for many years. If the winning idea is really good – we are looking at all types of marketing – TV, digital, print, in-store, radio etc We give some casting options in the brief and you should really watch the advertising examples to get this right http://ht.ly/2yzTm In fact I’ll give MOFILM the two versions we shot of the Bubbles add. One Western and another for Asia so you can see what I mean.
Q: Are there any lessons learned from Surf from past advertising campaigns?
A: As already mentioned the ad has to be grounded in laundry/cleaning because we are a detergent. We’ve learned that bubbles are a good representation of cleaning because consumers think of lather when they see bubbles. One of the best ways of demonstrating fragrance is through colourful petals.
Q: Surf say we have to re-assure the viewer that it cleans – but the focus of the ad should be fragrance?
A: The reason for this is to not be mistaken for a fabric conditioner. The bubble monster ad on the brief page is not a normal detergent ad and we love it http://ht.ly/2yA6u
