Cucumber encumber? Selling Dettol bodywash with cucumber ice cream

Dettol's 'all day freshness' campaign has tasked Havas Worldwide Hong Kong to "bring Dettol out of the bathroom through differential engagements".

The agency has thought up an interactive mobile app, a cucumber ice-cream flavour, and a brand activation event (清爽站) to be held on 2nd and 3rd August in Causeway Bay that will see the roll-out of the unique flavour of ice cream that has been created especially for the campaign. The ice cream, a collaboration with XTC (one of HK’s leading gelato brands), will be served as a reward to consumers who play with the mobile app.

Of course, it all rounds back to the product, which "offers a refreshing shower experience with cucumber extracts" and is ambassadored by local celebrity Priscilla Wong(黃翠如) who is said to have a "cool and candid" (爽朗 in Cantonese) personality.

Dettol is one of the first bodywash brands to launch a mobile app to engage consumers in Hong Kong, said Vincent Wong, marketing director for Hong Kong/Taiwan at parent company Reckitt Benkiser.

The app allows one to partake in virtual kickboxing, virtual ice-cream grabbing, and virtual watergun fights with Wong.

Wethinks there is a lot of engagement to get through before we get to the act of actually washing ourselves. Why doesn't Dettol simply give out bodywash samples?

Explains CC Tang, chairman of Havas Worldwide Hong Kong cum chief creative officer of Havas Worldwide Greater China, “As a household brand which is seen as a commodity, we want consumers to realise that bodywash can also be perceived as a fun and engaging product."