HOMETHINGS
Amplifying the ad campaign - Tip-Tapitty-Tap
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Homethings: Amplifying an ad campaign in earned media
As a finalist in the Sky Zero Footprint Fund 2022, eco-cleaning startup Homethings was given a budget of £250,000 to run their first TV ad across Sky’s network of livestream and On-Demand channels.
Our job, with limited budget, was to amplify the ad via earned media. Now, an honest PR wouldn’t be too proud to confess that this type of brief is typically the stuff of nightmares! Amplifying a creative that’s been primarily designed for paid media is rarely an easy task.
However, the ad itself, created by The Clerkenwell Brothers, is witty, memorable and impossible not to love. It features a regular looking guy at home in his kitchen, explaining how the average cleaning spray is up 80% water packaged and shipped around the world in single use plastic.
In a bonkers twist, the star throws off his robe to reveal a rather fetching pair of silver shorts and he breaks into a full kitchen jazz tap dance. As he does so, visuals of Homethings’ refillable cleaning sprays being activated by adding tap water appear on screen, showing viewers just how easy it is to move to planet-friendly refillables when you JUST ADD TAP.
See, our view at Visible is ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’ – so our idea in the end was simple… bring the ad creative – just as it is - to life in the real world, but in a place that people least expect it. Now, where is the dirtiest place you can think of that might need a little spruce and a healthy injection of wit to go with it? Yep, you guessed it – the London Underground.
So, on Tuesday 4th April, we set out with West End performer, Michael Lin, to bring Londoners a little surprise and delight from Homethings.
Sporting the same bath robe as the one worn in the ad, Michael was filmed tap-tippidy-tapping his way across the London tube network, flinging off his robe to reveal his very own pair of sparkly silver shorts as he cleaned up handrails, barriers and armrests using Homethings’ all-purpose cleaning spray and magic sponge.
And it got just the reaction we were hoping for!
Some commuters were giggling, lots were impressed and some just didn’t know what to make of it – but one thing’s for sure… lots of people filmed it.
Within hours, ‘The Tap Guy’ started to go viral. One post shared on TikTok reached over 1 million views in just under 24 hours. Everyone was talking about the tap man and sharing videos on social media.
Once our TikTok idea had gone viral, we started work on project media. We shared links to the top trending videos with London-based regional papers and lifestyle titles who love to cover anything that Londoners are lapping up on social. And sure enough, traditional press started to lap it up too, with coverage appearing on Time Out, Yahoo UK and Ireland, Secret London, My London and across the Newsquest media group’s London regional titles.
In the end, our Just Add Tap (got real!) campaign received 3.5 million views across TikTok and Instagram and generated 15 pieces of traditional media coverage.
Tap-Tappity-Tap-Tap!
1M
views on TikTok
in less than 24 hours
15
pieces of traditional media
coverage incl. Time Out & Secret London
3.5M
views across TikTok and
Instagram in 48 hours
