How Unilever is leaning into CleanTok to reach cleaning-obsessed Gen Z consumers

CleanTok has ballooned into TikTok’s largest community, with its corresponding hashtag amassing nearly 100 billion collective views and encompassing more than 4 million videos. Now, Unilever and TikTok are teaming up on two campaigns aimed at the CleanTok community—particularly its Gen Z members. Unilever and TikTok have launched the “#CleanTok Awards,” designed to honor creators, as well as a five-episode animated video series that transforms several Unilever-owned cleaning products into soap opera characters. The new #CleanTok campaigns reflect a broader trend of brands leveraging niche TikTok communities as an entry point to connect with Gen Z consumers. Penguin Random House similarly engages with the #BookTok community and several influencers associated with the literature-focused niche to appeal to Gen Z readers. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs “Throughout the pandemic, we saw Gen Z engage with cleaning in a way it hadn’t done before, and the rise of #CleanTok,” said Eduardo Campanella, Unilever’s home care chief marketing officer, in the press release. “This demographic is only becoming more engaged and, with over half (56%) of TikTok users choosing to watch comedy sketches, we want to bring more branded entertainment to them in a format that they find appealing.” Check out the latest Gen Z news here The “#CleanTok Awards” will honor creators whose content falls into one of four categories under the broad #CleanTok umbrella: “Most Helpful Hack,” “Most Motivational Sunday Reset,” “Most OMG Extreme Clean” and “Most Satisfying ASMR.” These subgenres of #CleanTok are each popular in their own right—the hashtag #SundayReset, which often accompanies videos of so-called “cleanfluencers” eliminating the messes that accumulated in their homes over the course of a week, has garnered more than 4 billion overall views. @gracemadsfitz Sunday reset my apartment with me 💗 #sundayresetroutine #sundayreset #aestheticbedroom #aestheticapartment #pinterestbedroom ♬ pain - senia The winning creators for each category will be voted on by TikTok users who follow the cleanfluencers in the running for the #CleanTok Awards, according to a TikTok press release. Unilever isn’t the first company to host a TikTok-exclusive awards show: In late October, beauty brand Essence Cosmetics hosted its “Effortful Makeup Awards” to honor beauty creators on TikTok. Unilever and TikTok are also concurrently holding a “Spotless Creator” competition, where one TikTok user (not necessarily a cleanfluencer) with the “most creative cleaning transformation” will receive a cash prize of roughly $4,888. Both competitions will live in an in-app “CleanTok Awards Hub,” where TikTok users can vote for winners of the #CleanTok Awards and enter themselves in the “Spotless Creator” contest, according to a TikTok blog post. Two U.K. based cleanfluencers, @lynsey_queenofclean and @annrussell03, will serve as ambassadors for the awards, and winners will be announced on Dec. 1. Additionally, Unilever, TikTok and agency Gravity Road partnered to launch the soap opera “Dirty Deeds: A Kitchen Crime,” which lives on Unilever’s TikTok account for its cleaning tips website “Cleanipedia.” Gravity Road created the “Dirty Deeds” series with comedy creator and animator Sam Cotton, who has 3 million TikTok followers. The cleaning soap opera is animated in Cotton’s cartoonish style, which often adds facial features or appends limbs onto animals or inanimate objects. @cleanipedia_uk Dirty Deeds Episode 1 – Someone's lurking in the shadows for Comfort Creations but who could it be…. 👀 #DirtyDeeds #Cleanipedia #Persil #Comfort #Cif ♬ original sound - Cleanipedia These two campaigns are part of an ongoing global partnership that Unilever and TikTok entered into in June, with Unilever becoming the exclusive sponsor of the #CleanTok hashtag and surrounding community in 10 countries across Europe, Asia and South America. That partnership will run through January 2024, according to a release announcing the collaboration. Along with the soap opera series and upcoming #CleanTok Awards, Unilever and TikTok’s partnership has also included the two companies working with more than 100 creators on the platform, including @chrisjoyz, @mumukdaneno and @senalicann. @sun.france A la maison, nous ne sommes pas toujours d’accord sur la façon de bien remplir le lave-vaisselle. Et vous, vous êtes plus Team Flo ou Team Chris ? @chrisjoyz #cleantok #Suncapsule #Sunabsolu ♬ son original - Sun In the five months since Unilever and TikTok launched their #CleanTok partnership, the hashtag has jumped by over 35 billion views, according to the companies’ latest statement. Unilever’s #CleanTok partnership has helped increase sales, with cleanfluencers driving a 38% jump in sales of Unilever’s Cif Cream Cleaner among U.K. consumers between ages 18 and 28 after the product was frequently used to clean white sneakers in a viral #CleanTok trend, according to Kantar Worldpanel data. ~ ~ ~CLARIFICATION: Gravity Road created the “Dirty Deeds” series with comedy creator and animator Sam Cotton.

How Unilever is leaning into CleanTok to reach cleaning-obsessed Gen Z consumers

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