GE Appliances puts a new spin on National Laundry Day

GE Appliances Canada has given a new spin to National Laundry Day, which is indeed an annual event that takes place every April 15.

To celebrate the day this year, GE Appliances executed an integrated marketing campaign in support of its GE Designer Line of laundry appliances that included broadcast partnerships, giveaways and a Twitter party.

“Believe it or not, there are people out there that are crazy interested in laundry – laundraholics I might call them,” says Lyndon Madden, director of marketing at GE Appliances Canada in Burlington, Ont. “We really wanted to get it out there and create some fun around laundry, which essentially for most people is a bit of a lamented task, but something that we all need to do.”

The day included TV appearances on Global Morning in Toronto and Breakfast Television in Montreal and Vancouver. Each show held Designer Line laundry pair giveaways, worth about $2,000 each.

Laundry hacks – laundry tips and tricks – were discussed on each show, such as safety-pinning pairs of socks together so that they’re not lost in the washer or dryer. “Phantom sock syndrome is something everybody knows,” Madden says.

A Twitter party connected GE Appliances to #NationalLaundryDay. People tweeted about hacks and trends and even created laundry-related lyrics to popular songs, Madden says. The Twitter event also included an appliance giveaway.

The campaign was supported by media relations, paid social media and eblasts to mailing lists.

The GE Designer Line was launched last October but has taken time to get traction, Madden says. “Once you slide into November and December it’s hard to fight the Boxing Day, Black Friday message with a new product introduction.” By talking about the line now, “it’s still very new to a lot of people. “

The new top-load laundry line marks a return to popularity of the format, Madden notes. While “front-load laundry really increased in recent years and older top-load fell by the wayside,” top-load now represents more than 50% of the market.

The National Laundry Day events drew “an astonishing 22.8 million impressions” and #NationalLaundryDay was a trending hashtag in Canada. That makes GE Appliances’ continued participation in the day likely, Madden says.

“It really comes from a place of wanting to own something special like this and become synonymous with it. That’s fantastic for any brand to be able to do.”

Craft Public Relations, Brandfire Marketing Group and Sims Advertising executed the campaign.