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Young boy smiling, splashed in mud, wearing a gold paper crown.

What’s in half a billion homes on the planet?

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In some 500 million households across the world, you’ll find a product from our Dirt Is Good brand: a level of penetration that has sales topping €4 billion a year. Proving that you can grow a brand to be powerful, purposeful and profitable.

In December 2022, sales of Unilever’s Dirt Is Good (DIG) brand – also known as OMO, Persil, Skip, Surf Excel, Rinso and Breeze, depending on where you live – surpassed the €4 billion mark. There is now a product from the portfolio present in half a billion households.

Given these figures, it’s not surprising that DIG is the world’s largest laundry brand (in terms of household penetration) and the fifth most-chosen FMCG brand. It’s also Unilever’s third-biggest brand after Dove and Knorr.

Since it became the front runner of Unilever’s Clean Future strategy, DIG unlocked unmatched category growth, becoming the No.1 contributor to Unilever’s underlying sales growth in 2022.

As Tati Lindenberg, VP, Marketing, Dirt Is Good, says: “With a relentless focus on superiority coupled with sustainability, the success of Dirt Is Good shows just how a household laundry brand can be purposeful while driving business growth.”

Building a brand that people love

In 2004, we developed an idea that challenged the conventional codes of the commoditised laundry category into a positive source of human growth and development. Since then, the Dirt Is Good idea has led to growth from a €0.4 billion to a €4 billion business today. And it continues to gain momentum.

Within our home care business, DIG is the largest brand, followed by Sunlight at €1.3 billion and Comfort at €1 billion. Every day, the volume of DIG products sold would fill 12 Statues of Liberty. According to Kantar Worldpanel, over 200 individual product packs are sold every second, making DIG incremental sales in 2022 increase by an additional €1 million every day.

OMO key visual with denim pocket

Innovating for people and the planet

As part of our Clean Future commitment, the brand stepped up its efforts to address the climate crisis by rethinking the way its products were created, manufactured and packaged so that they remained tough on stains but were kinder to the planet.

Among a host of initiatives, DIG introduced plant-based stain removers and cardboard packaging, cut its use of virgin plastic and pioneered ingredients made from industrial waste emissions. In 2022, the brand launched its most sustainable capsule ever, featuring a new formula for high performance on a low-energy cold wash.

[Image – Skip capsules key visual]

Inspiring kids to take action

The move to create the DIG brand pioneered a marketing approach that focuses on purpose as well as superior performance. Today, the Dirt Is Good tagline and the visual ‘Splat’ that accompanies it have become symbols of the brand’s purpose: to inspire people to dream and dare in the knowledge that DIG products will get even the dirtiest clothes clean again.

In 2020, research revealed that DIG needed to pivot to address the evolving attitudes of both children and parents. So now, through the Dirt Is Good Project, which is live in the UK, Brazil, India, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam and Chile, the brand is working with NGOs, schools and communities to inspire 10 million people to take action for the causes that matter to them.

Take a look behind the brand to find out more about DIG’s products and purpose, and watch a few of the brand’s most iconic ads.

Surf Excel beach clean-up key visual

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