FROM THE GRAND PRIX WINNERS

ALI CHEIKHALI, SENIOR STRATEGIC PLANNER, TBWA\RAAD

We’ve all seen clichéd on-screen demos demonstrating the power of one drop of this or that liquid solution. The reality, however, is that it only takes one drop of Pril to wash a set of dishes. That’s what we’ve always claimed, until our biggest competitor started promising the same, only more loudly when backed by big media bucks. In a highly commoditised “value in power” category, the only way to dent our competitor’s lead was to reclaim “the power of one drop”. After (borderline creepily) observing our target in their natural shopping environment – supermarkets – we understood what made them tick. We decided to go small by bringing our claim to life. We created the Pril one-drop bottle, the exact Pril detergent bottle reduced to the size of a thumbnail. Our big solution in a tiny package proved empirically the power of one drop to help us retain our claim along with some of our competitors’ market share

Truly understanding our target’s behaviour allowed us to decipher the real problem behind the problem. This made all the difference. Once we had a clear grasp of the issue, our mind set directly shifted from “let’s create an ad” to “let’s find a solution”. And we were going to stop at nothing to find it. We went beyond the brief and beyond the expected; we ventured into new roles, wearing the hats of retailers, producers and shoppers. This approach served as our pathway to innovating within and disrupting a category that hasn’t witnessed any disruption since my grandmother got married. It’s that disruption that ultimately led to the judges picking it. It simply represented the perfect intersection of creativity meeting innovation to deliver results.