Ariel is investing hugely in pods – a simple capsule of carefully measured detergent that delivers a perfect wash every time.

Many consumers have been delighted. Across Europe, pods now account for 24% of the market, peaking at 38% in Germany. In Israel, however, they lag at just 15% penetration.

By tying in the launch of Ariel’s tiny Extra-Clean Pods with a Jewish new year celebration, we identified a key moment to speak to pod-rejectors and encourage them to change their washing habits.

You can’t abandon the washing for a week without paying the price, and seven days of dirty laundry is 83kgs of hard, relentless work. It’s an immense load on mothers.

It was the perfect moment to test our traditionalists mothers’ commitment to the art of washing. Day eight was key, a moment when we could offer them an easier way to deal with seven days of dried-in stains.

We would create the ultimate trial opportunity and turn an overloaded laundry day, dedicated to laborious removal of dried-in stains, into the holiday it was meant to be.

We would transform the most “non-tech” time of the year into an opportunity to prove the efficacy of the most advanced laundry solution on the market.

Our strategy would convince even the most resistant traditionalist to trial pods.

We’d turn Sukkot into a celebration of Ariel’s Extra-Clean promise.

Our message positioned Ariel Extra-Clean Pods as the perfect way to extend family time by committing to our performance guarantee: removing seven-day old stains.

We intended to dominate this unique holiday:

• We launched with a massive newspaper and poster campaign featuring Ariel’s seven-day promise.

• Distributed branded Sukkah decorations and kids colouring pages via newspapers.

• Branded pop-up stalls sold the new pods in traditional holiday markets nationwide, positioning pods as essential to a successful holiday.

• The campaign culminated on the eighth day with an unprecedented “Street-Theatre” activation featuring Ariel-branded trucks carrying fully functioning laundry-machines and using loudspeakers calling people to bring their most deeply stained garments. We targeted this activity in cities and neighbourhoods where “Traditionalists” live and where the majority respect the “no laundry” rule.

Finally, after the event, video content was distributed on social media, via influencers and paid outlets across news and lifestyle websites.

Our seven-day laundry Ariel Extra-Clean pods stress test demonstration became the talk of the town as our targeted media plan reached an estimated 63% of Israel’s “Traditionalists”.

Our message and activations proved the power of the tiny pods to “Traditionalists” in the most convincing and engaging manner and they responded:

• Sales of Ariel pods rose 16% in just one month, taking an additional 3% share of the brand’s laundry success, across all forms of detergent.

• The total Ariel franchise (Powder, Liquid and Pods) reached its highest-ever share, up 4.3% quarter-on-quarter from 23.8% to 28.2%.

An astonishing achievement for a brand that was already the market leader.

It was the mother of all successes.