Elbow Grease | Paid and Organic Social Strategy

The Results

71.3k

followers gained on TikTok in 18 months.

118k

cleaning fanatics in the Elbow Grease Instagram community

2

awards won: Best Social Strategy & Social Campaign

The Brief

Elbow Grease® is a blockbuster-selling cleaning brand. The hero product, All Purpose Degreaser, has attracted a cult-like online following hidden within micro-communities across Facebook, and for many years went un-noticed... until now. Elbow Grease approached Target in 2019 to help the cleaning brand sparkle on social with a paid and organic strategy. The four goals were both commercial and brand-focused:

To build a brand with a cult digital following, with target KPIs set at 100,000 new Instagram followers and 10,000 new TikTok followers.
To drive revenue and win shelf space with national retailers, measured by rate of sale [ROS] with major stockists.
To design and curate Instagram content that leans into modern Internet culture and stimulates conversation, measured by engagement rate.
To plan and roll out an influencer marketing strategy (supported by paid social) to create awareness in emerging markets, measured by reach, impressions and brand sentiment.

Our Response

Over the past 12 months, we have pivoted the brand's organic social strategy; Elbow Grease now champions a humourous and approachable tone of voice, with content underpinned by British meme humour, nostalgia and relatability - with increased exposure via paid social. Along the way, Target's Social Team has led some exciting initiatives; most notably, an inclusive influencer campaign featuring personalities from the LGBTQ+ community; male and female cleaning enthusiasts; micro-influencers with modest but highly engaged followings as well as 4.4 million Instagram sensation, Mrs. Hinch.

In a competitive market, we've had to think creatively: planning and managing social collaborations with iconic British brands, such as Henry; an augmented reality [AR] Instagram filter and irresistible cleaning challenges on TikTok have helped the brand to cut through the noise and a sea of competitors, all amplified by a paid social strategy optimised for mass-market penetration.

The Results

We're delighted to say that after three years (and counting) of partnering with Target, Elbow Grease's performance marketing metrics and in-store rate of sale continue to surpass all expectation. The brand has won retail space with national listings in ASDA, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Wilko, B&M and more in recent months. On socials, the brand continues to grow with Instagram followers at 118k, and new kid on the block, TikTok, growing at speed by attracting thousands of excited new followers each month.

The Next Steps

In Q3 2022, we will be leading Elbow Grease's D2C eCommerce plans by piecing together an eCommerce marketing strategy for their new Shopify offering. That tactics that we are currently considering for early testing include marketplaces, such as Amazon Ads, as well as Google Search & Shopping, Pinterest Ads, and eCommerce SEO.

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