Inspiration
The White Cashmere Collection (WCC) is a fund- and awareness-raiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF) that hinges on a mega runway fashion show. The bathroom tissue collection is crafted entirely using sheets of Cashmere bathroom tissue and showcases its Pink Cashmere product, with 25 cents from the sale of every package going to the CBCF.
Over the past decade, the collection has featured more than 120 top Canadian fashion designers and has been promoted using almost every platform from traditional advertising to social media.
The goals for the 2013 program were to reassert Cashmere’s CSR position, celebrate the collection’s 10-year anniversary and surpass 2012’s massive media coverage.
Strategy
Until 2013, PR was the primary awareness driver for the program. Working with agencies Strategic Objectives, Fuse, Totem, John St., Maxus and Propeller Digital, the brand created a multi-layered, multi-phased cause marketing campaign that was designed to generate year-round media coverage for WCC. This was Cashmere’s most aggressive CSR marketing campaign ever.
Execution
A runway fashion show at Toronto’s AGO took place in September, hosted by breast cancer survivor and CTV Canada AM co-host, Beverly Thomson. The collection was curated by fashion designer Farley Chatto and starred 20 Canadian designers, whose garments and accessories were crafted using only Cashmere tissue.
The brand executed six bilingual and national traditional and social media campaigns over a 10-month period, and targeted fashion, beauty, lifestyle, news, trade and consumer journalists to create awareness. Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary media tours expanded regional coverage and asked Canadians to visit the brand’s Facebook page and vote for their favourite garment. Cashmere donated $1 for each vote to the CBCF (up to $10,000).
For the first time, the WCC and CBCF were featured in a national Cashmere TV ad. Also a first, the brand’s parent company, Kruger Products, integrated the collection into its trade show and in-store sampling programs to showcase the program as well as the Pink Cashmere products.
Results
In the end, more than 155 million media impressions were generated, with 369 media stories as well as five-plus hours of broadcast coverage. The campaign also received more than six million Twitter impressions, 45,000-plus votes and the brand’s Facebook fan base grew by an average of 400 per day during the campaign.
Judges’ comments
“Cashmere does a great job of turning what could be [seen as] silly into something that captures the imagination. It blends a worthy cause with creativity and integrates the product, which is rare.” – Howard Chang, Top Drawer Creative
“Even more powerful and integrated than 2012, [Cashmere] has created [excitement] around the cause and its products, going way beyond donations.” – Lucie Rémillard, Ultima Foods
