I’ll be the first to admit that PR isn’t really my thing. I’m a copywriter after all. While I do know a bit about it (and how to use words to improve your image or do damage control), the wider world of PR is a mystery. But that doesn’t mean I can’t recognise it when it’s done well. And after spending some of the quieter Christmas moments perusing TikTok, I wanted to share an example of one company that has done PR right by focusing not on themselves, but on others.
Scrub Daddy
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, Scrub Daddy is a popular brand of cleaning products. Known best for their smiley-face, dual-texture, temperature-reactive sponge. Their key USP is that they get softer in warm water and firmer in cold, giving you more control over your cleaning and better results. The unique shape of the sponge (with eye holes, mouth hole and spikey hair) meant that cleaning everything from cutlery to glasses was designed to be easy. The brand first surfaced in 2008 when its founder Aaron Krause appeared on Shark Tank, securing a $200,000 deal for 20% equity with one of the sharks. Since then, Scrub Daddy has gone on to become one of the show’s most successful product ever. No mean feat!
Since then, Scrub Daddy has become a household name with a cult following, launched new products to pair with their sponges (including cleaners, scourers, dusters, cloths and dish sponges), and even partnered up with big-name companies like Disney to produce limited editions of the iconic sponge. A big part of their success has come from really understanding their target demographic and tailoring their marketing to hit all the right notes.
That’s the crash course on Scrub Daddy done. Now, let’s look at what made them really stand out to me.
So What Are They Doing?
One of Scrub Daddy’s biggest focuses is influencer marketing. This isn’t out of the ordinary – loads of businesses do this every day with various degrees of success. But while they do plenty of the free PR packages and sponsored posts, they also do more subtle work with influencers.
Cue CleanwithBea. She’s a popular UK content creator who provides free deep cleans to people in need. After going through a very difficult time herself, she now documents the before and afters, and the process of transforming these spaces. She keeps her clients’ identities private while sharing their stories, trying to destigmatise the struggles a lot of people have with cleaning or dealing with their house during the worst times of their lives.
Since she doesn’t charge for her cleans (ever), she funds these cleans through brand sponsorships, donations and the money she earns through monetisation on TikTok and Instagram. And one of her biggest sponsors is Scrub Daddy.
I’d known about Scrub Daddy for years in passing, and thanks to my slight obsession with cleaning, I came across CleanwithBea about a year ago. And some of her biggest cleans are sponsored by Scrub Daddy. Not only do they donate a huge amount of products for her to use, but they also cover other expenses. For just one clean, they provided or paid for:
- Cleaning products
- Hazmat suits
- Gloves
- Shoe covers
- Multiple skips
- Transport and hotels for 5 cleaners for the entire duration of the clean
- Biohazard removal services
- A team of helpers for the first 3 days of the 7-day clean
- Providing kitchen basics like cutlery, chopping boards, knives, pots, pans, glasses and bowls.
All in all, Scrub Daddy spent around £12,000 to make this free clean happen, on top of any products they donated. And that’s just ONE of the free cleans Bea does. They sponsor her for many more cleans.
Why Is This Good PR?
If you’re as flabbergasted as I was once that was all totted up, you already understand why. Because here’s the thing. For a company the size of Scrub Daddy, roughly £15,000 (once you include the donated goods & services) isn’t actually that much to spend on advertising.
But they didn’t just spend it on TV or a billboard. They spent it with a relatively small influencer, and making a real and tangible difference in someone’s life. Their money was spent on making someone’s house not only habitable, but a nice place to live again, when they were desparate, in need and couldn’t afford the help they needed. Which is an incredibly honourable use of money any way you slice it.
And yes, I’m sure the conversation at the beginning went a bit like this:
‘How do we prove how good our products are?’
‘Find the dirtiest, most disgusting thing possible and clean it.’
Which isn’t all that charitable. But the outcome is absolutely fantastic. Not only is it a good deed and a morally positive thing to do. But it achieves 3 things:
Demonstrating social proof: People are often sceptical of what brands say about themselves. You would say you’re the best in the industry, wouldn’t you? But when other people say positive things about your brand, it sticks. That’s social proof, and it’s most believable, trusted form of marketing there is. Showcasing their products doing such an amazing job of cleaning the hardest things to clean is the best form of social proof there is.
Virality: Not only was that big clean satisfying to watch, but it absolutely blew up TikTok and Instagram when it was posted. Bea made a 9-part series of that clean, and each part has been viewed over 10 million times. Viral doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Good news story: Everyone loves a good news story. It gives you a nice warm glow and makes you much more connected to a brand. By participating in this sort of campaign, Scrub Daddy are doing real good in the world and generating a good news story that they directly made happen. Absolute marketing gold.
What’s the moral of all this? Honestly, I’m not sure. But I do want to encourage anyone thinking about how to spend their marketing budget this year to get a bit creative. Think outside that drab, boring ‘everyone does it’ box, and think about what positive difference you could make in the world. After all, good publicity lasts forever.