beverages

Pfister Tweaks Pretentious Competitors To Intro Innovative Faucet

Pfister may not have the snob appeal of higher-priced home hardware brands like Moen and Delta, but it clearly has a sense of humor, along with what it believes is butt-kicking innovation.

The humor is on display in Pfister's launch campaign for its Clarify faucet with Xtract Filter Mode by GE ("part faucet, part filter"). The faucet, according to the company, offers two category firsts: a dual-stage home filter (so that filtered water comes out faster as well as cleaner) and a hand-controlled, on/off filtration switch.

That could be tricky to convey without inducing yawns. But instead of seeking to impress by using esoteric scientific and technological terms — the creative tack of choice for "premium" home fixtures — the campaign's 90-second video, dubbed "The 'Science' of Xtract," conveys the benefits by showing the faucet in action, with voiceover messaging that parodies the usual tech-speak. 

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The deep, authoritative voiceover begins: "Water...scientifically known as wawa...” From there, viewers learn that water from a typical faucet "can carry millions of harmful contaminants — guck, germies, or as they're known in the scientific community, 'tiny little jobbies.'" And that competitors’ single-stage filters "leave behind what scientists refer to as 'a whole boatload of gunk.'"

The $500,000 campaign, from Culver City, Calif.-based agency and production company Nurture Digital, launches Oct. 1. 

In addition to being hosted on YouTube and featured on a dedicated Xtract microsite, the video is being used as pre-roll on YouTube and Google Display. 

The target audience includes first-home buyers, DIY-ers and consumers identified as having water purity interests. The media buy, handled by Toronto's Chango agency, has added weight in regions with poor water quality.

The creative approach is similar in tone to another recent Pfister campaign, for its React line of electronic, touch-free kitchen faucets.

The comical, one-minute video at the heart of that integrated campaign starts by parodying a black-and-white foreign art film, then abruptly shifts to color footage of a sloppy, hapless guy who learns the real-life benefits of the touch-less faucet (and the point of the art film) the hard way. 

That video has drawn more than 1.3 million views on YouTube alone since being posted in mid November 2014, and the combined YouTube and Facebook hits were triple the brand's expectations, Matt Zimmer, VP marketing for privately held Pfister, tells Marketing Daily.

The advertising tone of voice that's evolved over the past few years "captures the essence of the Pfister brand," notes Zimmer. "Pfister’s business model centers around delivering a product with more features at an equal price, or equal features at a lower price, than other well-known brands, plus class-leading style. As a result, we're one of the country's fastest-growing plumbing brands, and we're building a reputation as a company that isn’t too stuffy or unapproachable.

"In evaluating competitive packaging, websites and other consumer-facing material, we found its presentation sterile and confusing," he adds. "Remodeling, building, or upgrading your home is an exciting time, and we want our message to reflect the fun and excitement that folks are experiencing in that process," as well as to clearly convey the brand's technology innovations and benefits.  

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