“Emma” has demonstrated how creativity can save a brand. Le Trèfle was barely surviving before the campaign: it seemed bound to disappear.

Yet since the 1990s, Le Trèfle’s kitschy commercials had been part of the French collective psyche. Therefore, as a French and creative agency, we felt committed to save both the brand and its legacy.

In the difficult market environment of sanitary and toilet paper, brands were losing their leadership and private labels were becoming more and more powerful. That’s why we set up objectives in order to develop the brand in the long run:

- Keep our consumer base;

- Recruit a wider target;

- Increase the brand referencing in store;

- Respect the tight budgetary constraints while seeking the highest ROI.

Besides, the campaign had to focus on the launch of a new product, Le Trèfle MaXi Feuille (with sheets of paper 15% larger than a classic toilet paper). This innovation aimed to highlight the brand’s premium image and become a key player.

However, it is hard to communicate on this attribute of the product and show people how it can benefit them. So how could the creative work sell the concept of MaXi Feuille?

We decided to focus on the role of paper in society. Nowadays, everyone seems convinced that paper is less and less useful in our ever more digitalized society. Every day, we hear about a newspaper facing bankruptcy or the launch of a new mobile application designed to replace a paper-based medium.

In this context, our strategy was to fight and say “No, paper still has a great future.”

The central pillar of our creative work was digital media. We focused on this strong social issue and positioned the brand as the staunch defender of paper against its rival: digital. We produced a 38-second-format understandable by all.

And it went viral: in only 10 days and with no space-buying, it recorded more than 25M views, more than 1M likes on Facebook, and 1 tweet every 3 minutes. The campaign made the news and triggered international conversation.

After this international buzz, we implemented a national TV campaign, a TV sponsorship, an in-store plan, a website and an innovative PR plan.

Therefore, not only did our creative work save the brand, but it also exceeded our expectations by doubling the sales. Le Trèfle has been revived and is back on track for good.