2022 Gold Retail and E-commerce

Agency: OLIVER/U-Studio

Client: Matey Bubble Bath, Unilever

Campaign Name: Popping the Representation Bubble

Campaign Overview

Matey is one of UK's best-loved bubble-bath brands. Despite having enjoyed refreshes throughout its 64-year history the brand and product portfolio consistently remained Caucasian. OLIVER and U-Studio approached the client with the problem, and the creative idea to modernise Matey while dismantling harmful racial stereotypes.

Strategy
Interviews with parents from White and minority ethnicities, and analysis of studies performed by organisations such as Sport England, British Swimming and the UK Government Census revealed an insight. While Matey has always enabled and celebrated fun in water, access to water-based fun is not equitably distributed among UK children.

This was the purpose: to make the water a source of fun for all children. As a strategic focus, it provided executional direction in designing Matey's new characters and captured the defiant, optimistic tone of thecomms.

It was a two-part creative brief: be unmissable and make Matey stand out in culture, and also on the shelf. Besides this, make a difference by delivering on the promise of Matey's purpose.

Creativity

Bringing new characters to life, the creative team worked closely with illustrator Peijin Yang, and a panel of DE&I specialists labelled the Change Makers.

When characters Arlo and Hamina hit shelves they were representative of their communities, made room for cultural nuances and avoided harmful stereotypes.
Insight showed parents are 1.6 times more likely to discover products from posts or reviews by expert bloggers, so an Instagram-exclusive launch campaign was rolled out to establish the characters as part of parents’ bath-time rituals.
Social listening has also helped Matey respond to shoppers organically sharing photos, sending them bespoke Matey gift boxes. The brand has also devised a partnership with Better Leisure Centres and the Black Swimming Association to offer 200,000 two-for-one swimming lessons in inner-city locations, alongside swimming caps designed specifically for Black hairstyles.

Results

Since launching, Arlo & Hamina have reached more than 1.5 million parents via social, and another 3.5 million via PR.

Meanwhile, year-on-year sales in Tesco have increased by 7.8% and 70% in Asda. Some 47% of shoppers that bought Arlo & Hamina were new category customers, and 75% were new Matey buyers.

From June 2022, Matey could offer 200,000 2-for-1 swimming lessons through a partnership with Better Leisure Centres.

Team

OLIVER/U-Studio - Rod Sobral, Global Chief Creative Officer - Cat Collins, Global Executive Strategy Director - Andrew Tuffs, Creative Director - Jonny Collin Account Director - Dominique Gomes, Client Service Owner - Sebastinella Dunne, Senior Designer - Nicollette MacDonald, Account Manager
Unilever - Cleo Hector, Brand Manager - Christine Dobbin, Editor