Inside Persil’s 24-hour TikTok livestream—and why its goal wasn’t to sell detergent

Until last month, Hilton and its star-studded 10-minute TikTok ad held the record for the longest brand video on the platform. Now, that honor goes to Persil, which recently ran a 24-hour livestream on TikTok hosted by fashion designer Christian Siriano. Roughly 350,000 TikTok users headed to Persil’s channel for its “Wardrobe Refresh Hotline” livestream that kicked off at 6 p.m. ET on June 26 and wrapped at the same time on June 27. Viewers could dial 1-855-WARDROBE throughout the live event to request advice directly from Siriano, a self-proclaimed “outfit repeater,” about how to extend the lifespan of their existing wardrobe by pairing or styling items in new ways rather than constantly splurging on new clothing. @persillaundry 24 full hours of outfit repetition expertise with @Christian Siriano. June 26 at 6pm EST on TikTok 👀 #WashWithPersil #WardrobeRefresh #laundrytok #outfitrepeating #PersilPartner ♬ original sound - Persil Laundry Persil is far from the first brand to host a livestream on TikTok. Several beauty and fashion brands, including Tarte, e.l.f. Beauty, PacSun and Cider, have incorporated TikTok Live into their broader social commerce strategies in the months since TikTok Shop launched for all U.S. users last September. And just last week, during TikTok Shop’s “Deals For You Days” sales event, brands such as Benefit Cosmetics and sunscreen brand Coola held liveshopping streams on TikTok to promote their discounted products. Unlike most brands that leverage TikTok Live, however, Persil opted to exclude shoppable content from its 24-hour stream and didn’t task Siriano with pushing viewers to purchase the brand’s laundry detergent, Matthew Kutnick, marketing director of Persil and Purex at the brands’ parent company, Henkel, told Ad Age. “For us, this wasn’t necessarily about driving immediate sales—this was about really breaking through with the message that our laundry detergent keeps your clothes looking newer for longer,” he said. “We wanted to, of course, highlight Persil as ‘the official detergent of outfit repeating,’ but we wanted to do so in a way that was engaging for consumers and really provided them with a service—to be able to call in and get tips and tricks to extend their wardrobe.” Also read: The top 5 TikTok trends of the year so far Persil’s livestream and partnership with Siriano are part of a larger brand overhaul that kicked off in May with bright new packaging and an expanded detergent lineup, along with a new brand platform: “New. Again and Again.” TBWA\Chiat\Day NY, the laundry detergent brand’s creative agency, pitched the Wardrobe Refresh Hotline as an opportunity to “bring Persil’s brand platform to life” with “something bold and different to break out of the category conventions … [that] helped us create new and stronger relationships with consumers,” said Emily Wilcox, the agency’s CEO, in an email. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Persil Laundry (@persillaundry) More than 600 people phoned into the hotline during the 24-hour livestream, but only about 50 of those callers had an opportunity to speak with Siriano, Kutnick said. Several of those calls lasted roughly 20 minutes, and a handful of callers chatted with Siriano via video rather than just audio so he could assess their wardrobes in real time, Siriano said. “When [Persil] asked me, ‘Do you want to do a 24-hour hotline?’, I was like, ‘Are we gonna make it?’” he said. “But I thought it was just a really cool idea and really made sense. There’s so many people out there that want to know what to do with their clothes and so many people are conscious of not over-buying and buying the right things. I get those questions all the time from clients.” Along with the consumers who rang the hotline, Persil and TBWA recruited a group of celebrities and creators to call in at scheduled times throughout the livestream, including family vlogger Jessica Skube; stylist and designer Carla Rockmore; Tiffany Moon, a former cast member of “The Real Housewives of Dallas”; and Santa Corky, an influencer and Santa Claus impersonator. Several of the creators shared sponsored videos across TikTok and Instagram in the hours leading up to the Wardrobe Refresh Hotline to help drive viewers to the livestream, Kutnick said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Carla Rockmore (@carla.rockmore) But some of the hotline’s famous callers weren’t part of Persil’s initial plans, he said. Ashley Longshore, a painter, entrepreneur and close friend of Siriano, rang the line after coming across the livestream and seeing Siriano at the desk. And Persil’s team of agency partners—which, along with TBWA, included production companies DayDream Studios and Redslash; McKinney, Persil’s social agency; and H5, which handled PR—collectively scrambled to get former “Survivor” winner Tyson Apostol on the line after Siriano began talking about how much he enjoyed the reality competition series. The livestream “was very much a process of, over the 24 hours, seeing what worked, seeing what [Siriano] enjoyed doing and being able to build upon that over the event,” Kutnick said. Persil and its group of agency partners set up a “video village” to closely supervise the stream, monitor the thousands of comments (just under 100,000, to be exact) that poured in over the 24 hours and update Siriano about upcoming callers throughout the stream, Kutnick said. Between calls, Siriano entertained viewers by sketching clothing designs and responding to commenters. And, to give Siriano some time to rest during the stream, Persil brought in “Christian stand-ins” as substitutes, who hosted segments such as a yoga class with “laundry-inspired poses,” Kutnick said. “We never got to test this—we just did it,” Siriano said. “And to have all of these impressions for a first-time [campaign] … I mean, trust me, I know some TV shows that would love to do this stuff and have an audience that quickly.” Amy Cotteleer, chief experience officer at independent agency Duncan Channon, said she anticipates more brands will collaborate with influencers on livestreams in the coming months due to the “influencer fatigue” that consumers experience when scrolling past sponsored post after sponsored post. As a consequence of the explosion of the creator economy, “Almost everything [on social media] now is an ad, which makes finding authentic reviews and recommendations—and really, authentic content overall—tricky,” she said in an email. “Livestreaming has helped to combat that a bit, because even if influencers are being paid to sell or show a product, the consumer is still seeing the product and its effects in real time via unscripted moments that build a nice sense of intimacy and trust.”

Inside Persil’s 24-hour TikTok livestream—and why its goal wasn’t to sell detergent

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