Partnering to reach millions: Saka, Arsenal and Dirt Is Good
Published:
Dirt Is Good brand ambassador and England and Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka has kicked off the first campaign in the laundry brand’s partnership with Arsenal Football Club. With the potential to reach millions, it coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Dirt Is Good idea.
Dirt Is Good and Arsenal’s two-year collaboration celebrates a shared mission to spread the joy of getting grubby through sport.
The brands’ first joint campaign centres on ‘The Autograph’, a short film featuring a young Arsenal fan, whose shirt signed by Saka is accidentally washed clean due to the power of Persil Bio 3 in 1 capsules. Viewers follow the youth’s mission to track down the player to get him to autograph their shirt once more.
Ahead of its launch in cinemas and on the brands’ and Saka’s social channels, guerrilla posters for the film were planted around Arsenal’s home ground in London. But there was a twist – seven of the posters hidden around the Emirates Stadium had actually been signed by the popular forward.
With a team of football-loving influencers posting clues on social media, fans set off on a treasure hunt for the autographed artwork. And there was one last surprise for all those who secured the signed posters – their very own autographed Saka shirt, just like the one featured in the film.
Mixing traditional and social marketing to score with Arsenal fans
“This integrated campaign encapsulates everything we stand for, executed in a way that truly cuts through,” says Tati Lindenberg, Vice President of Marketing for Dirt Is Good (Persil). “Our guiding principle has always been that Dirt Is Good and every stain tells a story. The Autograph is a milestone moment for us as we begin to tell our stories through the lens of sport, reaching new and highly engaged audiences.”
Following the first activation of the footballing partnership, the brands will continue to drive brand awareness and increase worldwide sales, by bringing together Dirt Is Good, Arsenal and their loyal global fanbase.
An overview of Arsenal’s reach in 11 football-loving countries[a] highlights the potential for Dirt Is Good to vastly expand its audience across key markets, including Asia, South East Asia and Latin America. Arsenal has over 338 million club followers spread across the globe, with 104 million in China alone. Social media platforms add a further 41.1 million followers into the mix, with 8 million in Indonesia and 6 million in Brazil.
Unilever’s Dirt Is Good laundry brands have announced a two-year deal as the official partner of Arsenal men’s and women’s football teams in the UK. They have a common goal: to champion the value of sport and drive peak performance on and off the pitch.
The final whistle may have blown on FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™, but our Personal Care brands’ sponsorship of FIFA is just getting started with more still to come. Discover four ways it’s proving to be a win–win for attracting women to the sport and engagement for our brands.
OMO, Persil, Skip, Surf Excel, Breeze, Rinso: Unilever’s billion-euro laundry detergent family may be known by different names around the world, but they are all united by two things: the commitment to getting clothes clean and the belief that messy play is good. Here’s a master class on Unilever’s Dirt Is Good master brand.