GRANNY GOT PANTS

TitleGRANNY GOT PANTS
BrandSLOGGI
Product/ServiceSLOGGI '79
Category A03. Durable Consumer Goods including Automotive
Entrant MULLENLOWE LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation MULLENLOWE LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
PR FRANK PR London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production ODELAY FILMS London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Jose-Miguel Sokoloff Mullenlowe Group Chief Creative Officer
Mark Elwood Mullenlowe London Executive Creative Director
Katrina Encanto MullenLowe London Creative Director
Edgar Galang MullenLowe London Creative Director
Victoria Ellis MullenLowe London Business Director
Lee Allen MullenLowe London Account Director
Emma Batho MullenLowe London Strategy Director
Anna Connolly MullenLowe London Account Executive
Daniel Flint MullenLowe London Designer
Nina Griffiths MullenLowe London Creative
Anna Jenkins MullenLowe London Strategist
Augusta Lindquist Mullenlowe London Designer
Alex Pemberton MullenLowe London Agency Producer
Charlotte Robins MullenLowe London Creative

Why is this work relevant for PR?

The success of Granny Got Pants was not the result of the usual PR strategies. From the very beginning, we crafted a story that has human interest. We turned the brand’s negative reputation as the old fashioned “granny pants” on its head and found the modern hero we all needed. We discovered that someone who embodied real comfort and demonstrated it with abandon could truly be worth rooting for. Through this insight, we were able to challenge the category norms, shift the mindset towards underwear, and celebrate an audience who simply didn’t give a fu*k.

Background

For 40 years, sloggi has stood for comfort, dating back to the launch of its first product, the Maxi – full coverage pants aka the “granny pants.” More recently, however, lingerie brands have dominated the category perpetuating the idea that youth, lots of skin, and small, were the only qualities of sexy. The initial brief was to create a campaign to relaunch Maxi and make it relevant to a new generation by championing comfort. The PR brief was to come up with a tactical stunt to amplify the main communication pieces, drive mass awareness of the new Maxi pant relaunch, and make the brand (and product) resonate with a younger audience (age 25 – 35).

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

The creative PR solution was built around one key insight: At 2019’s Glastonbury Festival, a 15-year-old boy – Alex Mann – became a viral sensation after being spotted in the crowd by Dave and rapping a whole song in front of millions. He was swiftly snapped up for a partnership with Boohoo Man. The news went everywhere. To make the ‘Granny Got Pants’ ad famous, an ambitious plan was hatched to reverse engineer the already-filmed ad and make the lead “granny” a star.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

The strategy was to give “granny” legitimate and organic fame through a stunt that would be in time for the launch. Over one million people attend Notting Hill Carnival every year. It’s the largest street festival in Europe, with 50,000 performers and hundreds of thousands of dancers storming the streets. Majority of people who attend are the target demographic, many of them women aged 25 – 35.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

To ensure the right level of exposure, we partnered with the Rampage Stage (the biggest stage with a crowd of over 20,000) and planted our granny in the crowd, front-and-centre. There she was ‘spotted’ by DJ Mike Anthony as she busted out wild dance moves in a pair of sloggi Maxi. To the cheers of crowds, masses of people pushed forward with their phones to film our granny, and upload her video to their social channels. In addition, a host of photographers, videographers, and influencers were engaged to film the granny and push out videos of her on their own channels, to engineer getting the video seen. In the space of 24 hours, Rampage’s video alone had racked up more than 2 million views. After 48 hours, sloggi “signs” the dancing granny to be the lead in their new and in a week, the ad was launched.

List the results (30% of vote)

- 230 million campaign reach - The video achieved 2000+ hours of viewing time in the first month, smashing the average of 16 hours for a campaign on YouTube - Organic press coverage including The Guardian, Mail Online, Evening Standard (front page), Daily Express, Daily Star, Stylist, The Sun, and City Am. Featured on Sky News, Good Morning Britain, ITV News London, whilst also teaching Ruth and Eamon how to dance live on This Morning. - The campaign achieved 8 million organic views in the first two months - The release saw a 3150% increase in traffic to social channels in the first four days of the campaign live date - sloggi achieved an all-time sales record following the campaign