Unilever and TikTok promote #CleanTok to jazz up home care image globally

21 Jun 2023 --- Unilever and TikTok partner to leverage #CleanTok, the global cleaning community taking social media by storm, tapping into the fast-growing trend of home cleaning hacks, tips and tricks about cleaning and related products.

The partnership features Unilever’s home care brands such as Dirt Is Good (Persil in the UK), Cif, Domestos, Sunlight and Comfort and will run until January 2024 in the UK, Vietnam, Turkey, Brazil, Philippines, Thailand, France, the Netherlands, Argentina and Indonesia.

“While cleaning products have been traditionally seen as functional and the act of cleaning as a chore, the results that come from using the right products in the right way can bring a huge amount of satisfaction,” says Eduardo Campanella, home care chief marketing officer at Unilever.

“It’s an opportunity for us to provide information to consumers and inspire them on how to use our products. It also gives us a unique insight into how they use our products, as well as what they do and don’t like about them. This two-way dialogue is like sitting down and having a chat with millions of people who use our products each day.”

Kickstarters aka influencers
#CleanTok’s popularity has been bolstered by cleaning influencers – “cleanfluencers” – and content creators who elevated the traditional role of cleaning to a genre of entertainment.

To start the partnership, the organizations are working with @chrisjoyz (5.2 million followers), @mumukdaneno (1.8 million followers) and @senalicann (226,000 followers). For the duration of the initiative, Unilever’s Cleanipedia platform, which provides tips and advice on cleaning, will be #CleanTok’s exclusive sponsor.

Many Gen Z’ers view staying at home and cleaning as the “new going out,” a theory supported by people interested in searching for videos of doing the laundry, washing grease off a grill pan or scrubbing a toilet bowl.TikTok engagement spikes on family holidays and other festive moments.

The fact that the #CleanTok community on TikTok is among the most engaged on the platform reinforces the notion. Household cleaning evolved since the COVID-19 pandemic beyond removing stains and keeping germs at bay.

It has increasingly become about satisfying experiences, which has been epitomized by TikTok’s cleaning community, #CleanTok.

According to recent studies, consumers continue to be influenced by content creators on social media. “TikTok made me buy it” is a common phrase online, which has also made its way to beauty brand marketing in brick-and-mortar stores.

Home care as entertainment
The cleaning boom and the subsequent consumer habits surrounding it have surpassed 79 billion views. The associated video content has outpaced trends such as #BeautyTok with 50 billion views.

Statistics show that social media fans convert into consumers. For example, 54% of users have bought a household product after seeing it on the platform and 71% of these were unplanned purchases.

About 70% say TikTok played a role in their discovery of household products. TikTokers are 1.5 times more likely to immediately go out and buy something they discovered compared to the users of other platforms.

According to Unilever, there has been a more than 63% year-on-year growth in the household cleaning category as a result of TikTok connection with “cleaning” having around 63 billion views, “cleaning hacks” with roughly 11 billion views and about 6 billion views of “home hacks.”

The #CleanTok concept is used differently across the world displaying local cultural nuances for various regions. This fragmentation is observed during family holidays such as Ramadan and Christmas when a surge of in-app searches occurs for home cleaning tips and tricks beforehand.

Engagement spikes are also visible during times of spring cleaning, back to school and preparing for festivities.

Edited by Inga de Jong

To contact our editorial team please email us at editorial@cnsmedia.com