• by Paul Gough , July 25, 2003

When it comes to advertising its consumer products, chemical company Dupont has decided there's strength in numbers.

This month, Dupont kicked off a $20 million campaign breaking across television and print for Dupont's Teflon non-stick coating and fabric protector, Stainmaster carpet and Corian and Zodiaq surfaces.

Dupont U.S. brand manager Barbara Pandos said the target audience for the products are women who work full-time, have children and are looking for products that can make their lives easier. Dupont's tag: "Carefree living."

Dupont has consistently advertised each of the brands, including the relaunch of the Teflon brand about a year ago when it was repositioned as Dupont's sole nonstick cookware brand. But the company decided that this time around, that brand togetherness was key.

"What's different about what we're doing this time is that we have coordinated a number of our different brands together to have more voice against a similar target," Pandos said. She said that the goal is to showcase Dupont's consumer brands.

"People may know about one of them but they may not realize that many things that touch them come from Dupont," she said. "All of the spots are signed with 'Dupont: The Miracles of Science,' but they're really meant to highlight the brand."

The television campaign is built around 30-second commercials, which will air on both broadcast and cable. Teflon, which broke into the consumer market more than 20 years ago as a nonstick cookware, is now making an appearance as a stain and wrinkle resistant fabric. Several apparel brands have used Teflon as a brand fabric protector. The Corian and Zodiaq spots direct consumers to an 800-number, where they can be connected to a nearby Dupont partner.

The spots will run in a variety of network programming, including early morning and evening news plus assorted primetime. Spots will also run on Lifetime, HGTV, TLC and the Food Network - all female-skewing shows.

"Certainly broadcast is going to provide a large number of rating points for us. What cable can get us is some of that great affinity that the individual brands have ... Food Network is a great place when we think about Teflon cookware. HGTV certainly brings that target consumer interested in the Dupont Teflon fabric protector, among others."

Pandos said that Dupont and its agencies are also partnering with networks on special programming, including spots that will run during CBS coverage of the U.S. Open. Universal McCann, one of Dupont's media agencies, negotiated a deal with the Food Network for spots to run its Labor Day weekend programming.

On the print side, advertising will run in Better Homes & Gardens, Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, Country Home, Food and Wine, Good Housekeeping, House Beautiful, InStyle, Oprah Home, Southern Living, Real Simple, Redbook, Renovation Style and Traditional Home.

Dupont has several creative and media agencies doing pieces of the campaign, although in May it awarded Oglivy the status as lead global agency and it's in the process of transition. Oglivy does the nonstick Teflon creative, Doner created the work on the fabric protector, Cordian and Zodiaq, and BBDO created the Stainmaster campaign. The Media Ege handles the print buying and individual brand agencies are responsible for media buying, mostly McCann Erickson.