Reckitt sets new Finish challenge

CREATIVES in Cannes this week have been given the challenge of coming up with the next great idea for Reckitt’s Finish dishwashing detergent campaign that helps preserve water. ‘Skip The Rinse’ encourages consumers to avoid prerinsing dishes, a move that can save up to 57 litres of water per dishwasher run. “It’s a multi-year campaign, it’s collected several Lions in the last few years, and it needs to be reinvented constantly to appeal to new people and to inspire many more millions to follow us on that journey,” said Fabrice Beaulieu, Reckitt’s chief marketing, sustainability and corporate affairs officer. The takeover of the cafe area of the Palais features illustrations of places across the globe that are at risk of water scarcity, including moving images of the Rio Grande in Mexico.

“We see sustainability as a rising expectation if not demand from consumers,”

Beaulieu told Lions Daily News. “They want a more sustainable product footprint, but they also want brands to do more than pledging. They want them to act, they want them to step up and contribute positively. They want them to do, not just say.” With two-thirds of the world’s population facing potential water shortages by 2025, ‘Skip The Rinse’ was launched with the aim of stopping the prerinse on a global basis. The company estimates that a single household would save almost 3,000 gallons of water per year by making the change, and Finish estimates that, as of last week, more than 23.5 million gallons have been saved through its efforts.

“This movement started with reinventing the product,” Beaulieu said.

“We’ve changed the technology, it’s even greener and there’s less chemistry in the product.

It performs even better and, because it does that, we can ask people to skip the rinse.

“Sustainability is turbocharging creativity,” he said. “You can see with the concrete example of water how it has enabled a brand like Finish to drive its business while it’s creating a positive impact.”

RAE MAY may not be real but her impact certainly is — which is why some of the world’s biggest brands are queuing up to partner with arguably Asia’s most popular virtual influencer (VI).

Yesterday’s Dentsu Creative’s seminar, Virtual Influencers: The Future of Creative Risk-Taking, explored Rae’s rise to fame — in just two years, she has amassed

1.1 million followers — and what prompted CapitaLand to enter the virtual realm.

“The story starts with COVID,” said Bee Leng Tan, CapitaLand’s managing director of digital ventures. “We wanted to stand in solidarity with our tenants, many of whom were hit hard by the pandemic.”

With face-to-face interaction near impossible, the idea of designing a VI to enhance customer engagement with CapitaLand’s brand partners while providing social connection seemed to be practical.

It was also an ambitious one — not least because Tan had first to persuade CapitaLand’s board of the commercial value of creating a 25-year-old female avatar, with a larger-thanlife personality, an upbeat message of self-belief and a bouncy purple bob.

“CapitaLand is used to dealing with bricks and mortar and tangible results,” she said. We’re in real estate — the word ‘real’ is core. But I figured the best time for us to come out of our comfort zone was when we’re uncomfortable already.”

Rae was born in late 2020,