A laundry brand asked Britain to stop doing so much laundry.
That's the campaign Alex Myers of Manifest showed near the end of his talk at aiblLIVE in London. Ecover, the eco cleaning brand and one of Manifest's clients, ran #RewearingIsCaring. It asked people to wash less and wear more. Lily Cole fronted it. There was a Rewear Chair at Dutch Design Week, a place to hang the clothes you'll wear again instead of throwing them in the basket. There was research with Falmouth University. The Guardian, LBC and the Express all covered it.
According to Manifest's own data, Ecover is now recommended in 61.1% of AI answers about UK household brands. That's ahead of Fairy, Method and Persil.
Two things to bear in mind there. Manifest made the campaign, so this is an agency showing off its own work. And the percentages come from Manifest's own measuring tool. The campaign facts check out. The numbers are theirs.
Still, the line on Alex's slide stayed with me. "The most recommended household brand in Britain is the one that told you to use less of it."
Spikes and gaps
The bigger point came out in passing, almost as an aside.
For years, SEO advice has pushed drip-feed content. Post often. Stay consistent. Keep the momentum. I've given that advice myself.
Alex said Manifest's research found the opposite. In their study, drip-feed content had a negative link with being recommended by AI.
"Just like humans, it is the spikes and the gaps between them that help you remember things," he said. "If you are constantly there, you are seen as noise, not signal."
That's Manifest's finding, and his own slides describe that work as correlational and directional, so treat it as a clue. But it rang true. Think about the brands you remember. It's the moments that stick.
About, or for
The line that gives this post its title came next. "You cannot campaign about something. You have to campaign for something."
A campaign about something is "here's our new range". A campaign for something has a point of view. It wants something to change. Ecover's was for wearing clothes longer, and it was brave enough to ask for less of its own product.
He added: "You should know what is before and after your brand." If nothing is different after your campaign, it wasn't one.
Bringing it down to size
I'm aware most small businesses don't have Lily Cole on speed dial. You don't need her.
A local bakery can campaign for proper bread over the supermarket stuff. A bookkeeper can campaign for business owners understanding their own numbers. A coach can campaign for owners taking a real holiday without the phone. Each of those is a stand. People can agree with it, argue with it and, most importantly, repeat it.
Done beats perfect still applies. A campaign with a point is enough to start.
Lots of owners worry that if they go quiet, they'll be forgotten. Alex's argument flips that. Be distinct, show up with something worth saying, then give it room.
Get it right and people remember you for something. When someone asks a friend, or an AI, about your area, there's a reason your name comes up.
So here's a question for you. If your business ran one campaign this year, what would it be for?
