Social media uproar spawns major Glad Wrap campaign

Rachael Micallef
By Rachael Micallef | 30 June 2015
 

Glad Cling Wrap has launched a major campaign to celebrate the return of its original packaging design, following major social media backlash earlier in the year.

The campaign #GladEveryday has been designed to tap into the huge amount of social media that bombarded the brand after it switched the location of the serrated cutter from the base of the box, to the lid, in January this year.

Glad Cling Wrap marketing manager Megan Francis told AdNews the fact that the brand listened to consumers and decided to move the cutter bar back to its original position, resulted in a wave of positive sentiment towards Glad which lead to the decision to capitalise on the conversation using the campaign.

“The minute that we saw the outpouring of consumers feedback we have listened, we have read every social media post we got and it was significant,” Francis said.

“We would have been crazy not to have listened to that, so we have let consumers shape the campaign.

“It's really exciting as a marketer. It's gold because I feel like I’ve spoken to the consumers one on one.”

Francis said that social media and digital are key channels for the brand, comprising close to 50% of its marketing budget. She said that the brand is focused on ensuring that it is constantly replying to consumer questions and comments through its social feeds throughout the day.

From 30 days from today Glad is encouraging consumers to share their personal message of gratitude and the things that they’re glad for through social media, using the hashtag #gladeverday. Participants will then have the chance to be the beneficiaries of 'Random Acts of Glad', receiving special gifts in response to their tokens of gratitude.

In addition, the campaign will have an experiential component, with two physical activations encouraging people to physically post their messages of glad on the 'Great Wall of Glad' at Westfield Sydney on 30 June and Westfield Parramatta on 4 July.

“When we communicated to people that we were changing the cutter bar back we saw this massive swing of positive sentiment,” Francis said. “That really sparked it. If a household product like Glad can inspire feelings of gratitude and happiness, we know there are plenty more things in life that are making Australians feel glad everyday.”

The campaign will also include a television commercial, coming out in mid-July, which features real consumers telling the brand how much they disliked the moved cutter bar, but how much they love the brand.

Francis said it marks the first experiential and first unscripted television campaign in the brand's history.

“I'll be honest, it's actually been very scary and very exciting all at the same time, because as a marketer we wouldn’t have been sitting here 10 years ago talking about the power of social media,” Francis said.

“Consumers are certainly braver, they'll tell you everything they think - good or bad - but at the same time we've been brave. We've been a great company that has listened to consumers, we haven’t been arrogant.

“I don't think consumers really expected a large organisation to listen to them the way we have.”

 

Credits:

AC Agency – Public Relations, Communications and ‘Great Wall of Glad’ activation

Initiative – Media campaign and TVC

We Are Social – Social media and digital 

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