2023-2024 DePaul AAF Competition: Tide Account

The 2024 AAF student competition called for a Gen Z focused Tide laundry detergent campaign promoting cold water washing. As creative director of DePaul’s team, I formulated a multi-touchpoint strategy that spoke directly to that elusive young target audience. I both personally created and oversaw the team’s development of creative work that communicated authentically with our audience in an arena they would care about: the expressive quality of clothing. Research prior to and alongside creative development found that our target audience, so-called “Zillenials”, overwhelmingly already washed in cold. With that in mind, it felt ineffective to craft a campaign springboarding solely off “cold” as a creative concept. Instead, a two pronged approach was taken: preservation and individuality. Insight showed that our target audience used clothing as a vehicle to express their unique personality. Moreover, research revealed a strong preference for secondhand clothing. Our messaging synthesized the topics of the preserving effect of washing clothing in cold water, and clothing as personal expression, culminating in our flagship headline:

If it’s gotta be you, it’s gotta be Tide.