Huggies on the Big Screen!

In an an Article in BrandWeek titled "Huggies Goes to the Movies," Vanessa L. Facenda discusses Huggies recent new ad effort for its kids bath and body products. "A singing flamingo shaped like a toilet and a hippo with a soap dispenser for a head star in the "Cleanteam" music video which debuted last week before the new Dr. Seuss movie, Horton Hears a Who!"

This 60-second ad runs in more than 3,500 movie screens nationwide through April 24. It will also air before Nim's Island, Food Fight and Wild Child.

Huggies new "Cleanteam" is a seven-SKU toddler bath and body line, featuring products such as bath wash, shampoo and hand soap. This new campaign also introduces cleansing cloths and new inspired packaging (the line launched in January 2006).

Like the commercial ad, they created a two-minute bath time "Webisode" which combines animated characters with real people. "The music video brings the characters to life to engage the toddlers and their mothers. The bath time Webisode is more about product usage," said Stacey Tomoda, Cleanteam media and relationship marketing manager. Huggies, owned by Kimberley Clark utilized Mindshare, New York, to create the music video and Webisodes.

More than anything, this campaign hopes to drive consumers to the newly created Huggiescleanteam.com, which launched March 17.

Cleanteam is also teaming up with Nick Jr. and PBS Sprout to air the video on video-on-demand programming. Nick Jr. also will air a 30-second trailer before VOD programs. At the same time, Webisodes will air on Nickjr.com, BabyZone.com, Parenting.com and Kaboose.com.

The brand spent about $1.4 million on Cleanteam in 2007. The Cleanteam campaign part of K-C's ongoing effort to increase their nontraditional efforts. They estimate their Nontraditional spending should reach 34% of its total marketing budget this year, up from 25% last year.

It seems that K-C is really trying to integrate nontraditional advertising in to their mix, not only with Huggies, but also with Cottonelle (discussed in my blog "Unconventional Toiletpaper"). Brands like K-C, that try to appeal to a specific market (Toddlers/ their moms) while utilizing unique media and methods, are usually the ones that see their profits, their brand equity and image go up-- especially when they are creating a consistency within the umbrella brand.