Luckeyou

In January of 2010, JWT London was launching a US-wide campaign for Kimberly Clark toilet paper brand Cottonelle. The central idea of the campaign was simple: how do you like your toilet paper to roll – ‘over’ at the front, or ‘under’ with the paper against the wall?

For two months Cottonelle’s ‘Great Debate’ raged across the nation, bolstered by a fully integrated campaign incorporating TV, web, live events, digital signage, a mobile application, and viral video.

Luckeyou was engaged to design and produce three critical components of the campaign:

1. A digital signage takeover of Times Square in New York City
2. A mobile phone voting application
3. Viral videos for use on the Cottonelle website and YouTube channel.

“Understanding the advertising spaces was our true challenge” says Tim Dingersen, Luckeyou’s Creative Director.  “Our designs in Times Square had to be bold, or they would be lost in the competitive bright lights.  Our mobile application needed to be more engaging than just a voting device.  And the viral videos needed to be surprising and unusual enough to create buzz and encourage shareability.”

Times Square Takeover

Luckeyou designed a digital takeover of key buildings in the Times Square vicinity, including NASDAQ, Reuters, ABC Studios & Media Meash. The designs were comprised of a mixture of colorful fluorescent backgrounds, the Cottonelle puppy and bold animated typography. Each animation was completely different due to the physical structure of the signs.  “As each building’s signage had to be customized for its space, we had a lot of fun reengineering the animation for each sign,” describes Tim Dingersen.   In addition to being fun, the signs also had to get passerby’s involved in the “How do you roll?” poll.  “We needed to make sure that each sign teased that question with the needed information for passerby’s to go and vote,” explains Tim.

Mobile Application

JWT also needed an iPhone application, which consumers could download and use for voting in the Roll Poll.  Luckeyou built a robust solution that included a voting mechanism as well as games, ability to invite a friend, a link to the Cottonelle website, and more.

Viral Videos

JWT’s goal was to turn the Roll Poll into a news event and needed short form content for the Cottonelle website and YouTube that conveyed that sense.  To that end, Luckeyou produced and directed two short-form videos.

The first showcased a small group of ‘Roll Over Radicals’ looking to influence the Roll Poll by changing the famous Los Angeles “Hollywood” sign to say “Rollywood”. The piece was shot in a guerilla fashion to appear as authentic as possible.

The second film, Bathroom Barricade, was released after the results of the Roll Poll. It turns out that 73% of America prefer their toilet paper to roll ‘over’. This film featured one of the unhappy 27% who roll ‘under’. It was shot to look like a local news story and was about a New York City resident who was protesting the Roll Poll result by chaining himself inside a Central Park public bathroom!

The Cottonelle Roll Poll attracted 2,364,123,031 media impressions and nearly 600,000 votes. Our viral films Rollywood and Bathroom Barricade each had over 100,000 YouTube hits in the first 24 hours alone, both charting in the entertainment section under ‘most viewed’ Total online video views came to 2,792,415.