To re-assert ourselves as a leader, we had to communicate cleaning — a category people generally prefer to avoid — in a completely modern and desirable way. And, we had to launch it on a platform that wouldn’t just reach a lot of people, but by its very nature, would facilitate a conversation about the brand.

We set our sights high, looking to Super Bowl LI – the most watched TV event of the year, with the largest co-ed TV audience to launch our campaign. The idea, “Mr. Clean is the Cleaner of Your Dreams” was born, demonstrating that you can’t help but love a man who cleans. And with Mr. Clean’s range of tough products, he’s sure to satisfy every room in the house.

The spot, “Cleaner of Your Dreams” was the centerpiece of it all, featuring Sarah, seduced by a hotter than ever Mr. Clean, cleaning tough messes as he sexily dances throughout her entire home. By the end, we reveal that Mr. Clean is just a fantasy, and in fact he is Sarah’s husband doing the dirty work. The spot resolves with “You gotta love a man who cleans” and Sarah pouncing on her husband passionately.

We began by looking at peaks in Mr. Clean’s advertising history that directly correlated to sales. Case studies on Facebook demonstrated that when embracing Mr. Clean’s sexy side, ad recall and sales propelled. Less than 1 year ago, a video with Mr. Clean’s chest muscles bouncing to the brand’s jingle drove 33% ad recall (versus 9% CPG benchmark), 21% top-of-mind awareness (versus 16%) and correlated to a 7% sales lift.

Looking outward, we studied today’s dynamics of household cleaning. Although 61% of women still assume the sole responsibility of cleaning, research shows that 37% of men now share the task. What we found next surprised us: sharing household chores was in the top three highest-ranking issues associated with a successful marriage — third only to faithfulness and good sex.

So, what makes Mr. Clean so dreamy? The muscles? Or the fact that he helps out? Our conclusion was a combination of the two. And while we embraced Mr. Clean’s sexy side on Facebook, we never exploited it in mass communications. The potential of reapplying the proven strategy on a larger scale was too promising to ignore. And so our strategy was born: “there’s nothing sexier than a man who cleans."

• In the six weeks post Super Bowl, sales on the products included in the spot - Liquid Cleaners and Extra Durable Magic Eraser, were up 3% and 5% respectively. These product lines represent 82% of Total US Mr. Clean sales.

• In the ranking of Super Bowl LI ad campaigns, Mr. Clean was ranked #1 by Business Insider, #3 by YouTube AdBlitz (#1 in YouTube AdBlitz Home Care & Personal Care categories), #5 by Adweek, #6 on USA Today Ad Meter, and received 4/4 stars from AdAge as well as an “A” from the Kellogg School of Business.

• Search volume saw a 16.6x increase from baseline vs. the next highest, Budweiser, who received an 8x Search lift, and Kia in third at a 2.6x lift.

• Sentiment of the spot was 89% positive on YouTube, and was the 2nd most shared ad of Super Bowl 2017 with 226,767 shares.

• Of the nearly 17 million YouTube views, almost 40% of the views were organic.

• Ad Recall for the 30-second spot was 6.62x higher than the YouTube benchmark, and 5.04x higher for the 6-second Teaser.

• On Facebook, the campaign demonstrated a 9pt brand favourability lift vs. the norm of 1pt