COVID-19: Unilever reinvigorates Lifebuoy brand in the UK with £12m campaign

Sold in over 60 countries, Unilever's Lifebuoy brand is a world leader in personal hygiene. Credit: Muhammad ZA via Shutterstock.

Unilever’s hygienic soap brand, Lifebuoy, is receiving a cash injection from the manufacturer to help boost sales, educate consumers and take advantage of new behaviour around handwashing in the UK.

Sold in over 60 countries, the brand is a world leader in personal hygiene. Lifebuoy’s Hand Hygiene Gel is currently listed in various stores in the UK but the brand has not had much of a presence in the country since the 1990s. Originally created in 1895 with the carbolic soap product that originally used ingredients derived from coal tar, the unique sensory cues associated with this formulation and product, together with the brand’s heritage that provides Lifebuoy with its nostalgia and platform as an industry expert in hygiene.

The consumer permission for the brand to be successful and continue developing and innovating in the personal hygiene arena is likely to come from this sense of trust and heritage. In its recent COVID recovery tracker survey, GlobalData found that the majority of UK consumers (86%) were influenced by* how familiar/trust-worthy/risk-free the product/service feels when choosing their products.

With its soap brand Dove already present in the UK, Unilever will be differentiating Lifebuoy with a functional rather than a beauty positioning. Seeking to strengthen its portfolio in health and hygiene, the £12m campaign will include TV, OOH and social media advertising. Unilever will be focusing on a ‘bish bash bosh’ message to educate consumers in efficient and effective personal hygiene. The campaign will also have a particular focus on children and vulnerable groups. This strategy will relate to consumers in the short and mid-term to the coronavirus pandemic but will also mean that the brand has a long-term ‘quest for hygiene’ that it will use to promote hygiene in a bid to help reduce child mortality around the world.

Unilever also recently joined forces with the UK government in March this year to help fund a global handwashing campaign which the brand Lifebuoy is now set to become a key part of.

Speaking in a press release, CEO Alan Jope said: “Lifebuoy and Domestos have a proven track record of running hygiene awareness and education programmes successfully, and we hope that the work we will be able to drive jointly with UK aid will help save lives that could otherwise be impacted by the coronavirus.

Jope continues: “As the world’s biggest soap company, we have a responsibility to help make a soap and hygiene products more readily available and to use our expertise to teach people to wash their hands effectively, whoever brand they choose to use.”

According to the same survey, GlobalData also found that nearly a third (31%) of UK consumers would like to receive tips on personal health and wellbeing from brands and so the new campaign is both perfectly timed and placed to offer genuine support and encouragement to consumers in maintaining their personal hygiene routines.

*Influenced by: I am always/often/somewhat influenced by how familiar/trust-worthy/risk-free the product/service feels when choosing their products.

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