• by Karl Greenberg , June 5, 2007

Kimberly-Clark, Dallas-based maker of products like Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Depend, is launching its first national campaign in a decade for its Viva paper towel brand.

The campaign is also unique because in a world increasingly oriented toward digital media, it focuses on a very corporeal "test drive" approach via a print insert containing a product sample camouflaged as an ad page. The effort launches this month in Reader's Digest and Every Day with Rachael Ray.

The six-page insert includes a sheet of Viva paper towel sandwiched between advertising copy, plus a $1 coupon for the product. Dave Wears, marketing director for the Viva brand, says the company is actually seeking a patent on the insertion technique--inserting a sheet of Viva with the insert, as a page of ad copy without poly-bagging it--thus avoiding fees marketers pay for including product samples.

The effort also includes a 30-second TV ad, running on cable channels like the Food Network, Fine Living and the Travel Channel.

Kimberly-Clark worked with creative agency Anthem Worldwide, a Schawk Strategic Design Company, to develop the six-page advertising and paper towel insert. Wears says the point of the effort is to get Viva into consumers' hands--literally--as it ramps up production and aims for multi-year, double-digit growth.

Wears explains that when Kimberly-Clark acquired Scott Paper and its Viva brand in 1995, the company also got production capacity for Viva. During the ensuing decade, the company kept Viva capacity flat while focusing on other programs. "Viva was made on very particular equipment, and there hadn't been time to develop that," he says.

Meanwhile, Viva--the No. 2 brand after P&G's Bounty--has maintained sales without growing beyond its base, he says. "In 2005 we came up with a way to create more capacity. So now our challenge has been how to go from a small, loyal base of consumers, by building awareness and market penetration," he says.

The company also began a series of segmentation studies, and last year saw double-digit sales growth for the first time since it had acquired Viva a decade earlier.

"The Viva consumer is really looking for performance; she is looking for above what she has known in the category so far--as close to a cloth towel as you can get," he says.

He says that the print ads show a woman experiencing a moment of epiphany when she first uses Viva. "The insight behind it was that women who try Viva experience a 'wow' moment. So in a way, it's six pages detailing a woman falling in love with the Viva towel."

Wears says the TV spot, called "Soda," features a boy in the kitchen who grabs a big bottle of orange soda, shakes it and opens it, and sprays it all over his mom. Rather than react with punitive measures, she picks up the sink sprayer and sprays him back. And they both end up cleaning up the ensuing mess with Viva paper towels.