Tide’s “Stains happen to the best of us”

Welcome to the AdMiration newsletter! Each week we analyze new and noteworthy ads from brands around the world to give you our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection).

This week’s ad: “Stains happen to the best of us”???

The ad opens to a girl sitting on bleachers across from a track. She takes a bite of a jelly sandwich, and when the jelly spills down her top she says, “I bet Alison doesn’t get jelly on her shirt.” The audience then sees Alison on the track getting ready to run with a smoothie. As she shakes it, the drink splashes on her top and she huffs, “I bet Noah Lyles doesn’t get smoothie on his jersey.”?

The video cuts to Noah Lyles in a canteen with other Olympic athletes after having spilled pasta sauce on his jacket. “Oh come on, I bet Carl Lewis doesn’t get tomato sauce on his jacket,” he says before the video moves to a shot of Carl Lewis with ice cream down his top. Noah Lyles is then seen putting his jacket in the washing machine with a big bottle of Tide on the side while the message “stains happen to the best of us” appears on screen and is reinforced by a voiceover that continues with “when they do, Tide’s got you covered.”?

The ad cuts back to the cafeteria where Carl Lewis walks past Noah Lyles and asks “Pasta in Paris?”to which he jokingly replies with a shrug, “When in Rome!”?

The message “It’s got to be Tide” then appears on an orange background with the word Tide displayed as the brand logo. The ad concludes with a voiceover saying “America’s number one detergent” as a new message appears on the orange background next to an American flag and Olympic rings reading “proud partner of team USA”.??

3 facts

• The ad scores in the top 5% of all US ads in potential to drive short-term sales and in potential to drive brand equity and long-term sales.?

• Despite not featuring during most of the ad, the brand was remembered by the vast majority of viewers because it had a major role to play in the narrative.?

• The relatability of the message made the ad highly emotionally engaging and enjoyable throughout.?

2 learnings

• If your brand is only present for a portion of the ad, ensure it has a real role to play in the storyline as the “behind the scenes protagonist,” and the assets used to showcase it are distinctive enough to make it memorable.?
• Showcasing your product as accessible and beneficial to a diverse audience can drive positive associations towards your brand, which in turn make it more likely for it to be chosen at the moment of purchase.?

1 reflection

It’s a common misconception that feelings of like and love in advertising are best evoked through heart-warming storylines, big gestures, intimate settings, etc.?

These emotions can also be elicited in more understated ways by showcasing relatable situations and conveying a level of familiarity.?

Understanding the way your brand can elicit emotion in a credible way is key, particularly in categories that are highly functional.?

For more data & analysis

How do you best consume information??

• Reading: Go to the Zappi blog for a more detailed look at this ad’s performance — including a look at how the Olympic personalities were received.?

• Watching/listening: Check out our video below where I walk through the data within the Zappi platform with Isabella Franzini Monteiro , Zappi’s insights manager.

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Until next week,

Kim Malcolm