Seventh Generation is an eco-friendly homecare products brand owned by Unilever, whose mission is to transform the world into a healthy, sustainable and equitable place for the next seven generations. 77% of consumers believe sustainability is important when selecting products to buy (IRI, NYU Stern, Center for Sustainable Business).

Seventh Generation’s mission serves to make this consumer priority a reality and continuously strives to improve all aspects of its products with a clear focus on upgrading its packaging to reflect the highest standards available with environmentally friendly materials. They have made a strong push to phase out large-format liquid laundry bottles by producing ultra-concentrated detergent that requires less packaging. In an effort to cut back on the production and disposal of plastic and reduce emissions required to transport these oversized containers, the brand remains determined to make the decades-old large plastic jug obsolete.

Committed to inform, and ultimately impact consumer behavior through strong creative and thoughtful messaging, Seventh Generation wanted to “disrupt” the digital experience in order to highlight the debilitating effects excess packaging has on the environment and promote the environmental advantages and the convenience of the smaller bottle. Delivering this message to the brand’s specifically defined and targeted consumers was another key factor in its ultimate success. Overall, there were three clear objectives of the campaign: connect with their consumer base of environmentally conscientious consumers, increase HH penetration by gaining new users, and focus placement across premium publishers.

As Kargo’s long-time valued partner, Unilever was offered Kargo’s exclusive format, the High-Reach Branded Takeover. This unit afforded Seventh Generation ownership of 100% share of voice (SOV) in contextually relevant articles across the most popular brand-safe publishers. To extend that reach across devices, Kargo deployed the Desktop Breakout unit to make an even bigger splash with unique reach and larger, more impactful ad experiences.

This one-of-a-kind campaign delivered high-impact creatives that purposefully disrupted the user’s digital experience in order to drive home the importance of the new environmentally friendly packaging. This was a key theme in both the messaging and the design strategy. The ads confronted the user with larger-than-life laundry jugs that inconveniently obstructed their view, encouraging them to think about the negative impact these plastics have on the environment and the world at large.

The Results

This campaign exceeded expectations and succeeded in breaking through to new audiences, and Seventh Generation saw a significant increase in consumers’ associations with the brand’s environmental mission. As demonstrated by the lifts observed across Aided Awareness and Consideration that followed exposure to the ads, the ads resonated exceptionally well with environmentally conscious consumers and very concerned consumers. In addition, the campaign was a high performer among those who are the primary decision makers for their household’s laundry detergent and with consumers who shop for laundry detergent in club stores, grocery stores, and mass merchandise stores.

By applying a multi-screen approach across mobile and desktop, the campaign was able to broaden its reach and help put it on a path to success. Bolstered by engaging and differentiated campaign creative, the Kargo products successfully performed above benchmarks collectively. The Desktop Breakout performance was higher than the average CTR for other desktop units delivering a strong .12%, and proved to be a great addition to future High Reach Branded Takeover campaigns. These ad formats allowed Seventh Generation to have 100% SOV at the article level on each page. By owning an average of four ad slots, this solution showed to be extremely efficient in driving media value and awareness.

By applying a multi-screen approach across mobile and desktop, the campaign was able to broaden its reach and help put it on a path to success. Bolstered by engaging and differentiated campaign creative, the Kargo products successfully performed above benchmarks collectively.

The Desktop Breakout performance was higher than the average CTR for other desktop units delivering a strong .12%, and proved to be a great addition to future High Reach Branded Takeover campaigns. These ad formats allowed Seventh Generation to have 100% SOV at the article level on each page. By owning an average of four ad slots, this solution showed to be extremely efficient in driving media value and awareness.