Dulux: Sprucing Up Its Brand For A New Generation

Dulux has embarked on a major brand building push to reignite consumer love — particularly among millennials, where relevance was not as strong.

Central to the effort is the return of its beloved old English sheep dog ‘Dorothy’ who has been a fixture of UK advertising for 65 years since her accidental debut.

Working with Ogilvy and WPP Media, the AkzoNobel paint brand is modernising perceptions, rebuilding consideration and preference, and ensuring Dulux feels like a brand for today’s audiences while maintaining its position at the top of the category.

Leading the way is Sam Balloch, brand & category lead at AkzoNobel EMEA who says that the dog has long symbolised “the warmth, life and authenticity of a real home”.

The dog isn’t just there to help sell paint, but to help people reimagine their ideal homes and lifestyles, while manifesting the brand’s “by your side” promise to help people shape the spaces they love. It was vital for the new ad to bring The Dulux Dog into the heart of the story, acting as more than a mascot, but central to the campaign.

That sees her portrayed by four dogs (alongside some CGI produced magic for the rainbow paint) in total for the ad, each at various stages of her life all the while shaking various colours of paint around her owner’s home. Ultimately, when she is fully grown, that ability transforms the living room in front of their eyes. The minute-long film ends with the platform ‘Life is what you paint it’ appearing.

“Dulux still stands for quality innovation when it comes to paint technology and sustainability and colour. We are a global brand, so the Dulux dog isn't actually in every market and we’re still hugely successful without the dog in other markets - it gives an extra level of warmth and Britishness for us that gives us sort of standout with our breadth of colour, our quality, our coverage, and the innovation of products,” says Balloch.

A modern creative media process

Balloch reveals that her team were excited when they were given the green light to bring back The Dulux Dog. They briefed Ogilvy with the early strategic work that meant developing both the creative and the longterm brand positioning which is currently planned for a three-year period.

Jules Chalkley, chief executive creative director at Ogilvy said “The emotional connection and storytelling power of the Dulux dog is immense. Over time it has become an emotional lightning rod immediately evoking warmth, home and trust.

With a new era comes the chance to evolve the story and by giving the Dulux dog the power of shaking paint, we hope to create more ways and new channels for people to connect and fall in love with her.”

Meanwhile, WPP Media agency EssenceMediacom was brought in to determine how best to reach that younger target audience, exploring which channels, moments, and ways the work should show up. Gone was the single ‘media-neutral’ ideal. Instead, a campaign was developed aiming to be digitally native - running across a variety of platforms including; TV, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and soon TikTok too.

The hero ad was developed to set the emotional tone, before being edited down into tailored assets which would push specific products or colour messages, with influencer and user generated content (UGC) feeding the social activity further.

From there, the creative and media teams collaborated closely to ensure the ideas were built for the environments they’d live in, driving both brand impact and media effectiveness.

Harriet Waldron, client partner at EssenceMediacom explains that the agency worked with Ogilvy from the very early stages to meet the challenge of producing this multi-faceted campaign in time for Easter. She says that applied pressure on both sides to meet the set timelines while also developing the volume and variety of assets needed for each digital channel.  

“We worked closely with both Ogilvy and AkzoNobel in the very early stages around audience. The entire platform is around milestones that are relevant to a modern audience over their parents, so we made sure that it was going out to the right people in the right channels. The creative and media have to work in harmony with each other, and it didn't feel like a separate media strategy to creative strategy,” continues Waldron.

Colourful creativity

Social was a key consideration for the campaign, featuring UGC-style creative alongside influencer/creator content. The group felt that social had to be a priority as it has become where consumers turn for decorating inspiration and to share their DIY journeys with others too.

Central to that is the strong visual image of the sheep dog shaking paint around the room, which is proving a gift as a piece of social content, says Waldron. “It’s so perfect, especially in a world where people don't respond to brand ads in social. It’s a platform that allowed for that.”

She also reveals that the visual impact proved strong in early testing and that it is driving earned coverage and shares across social platforms, taking the campaign reach even further.

Alongside social activity, linear TV, broadcast video on demand (BVOD) and subscription video on demand (SVOD) environments have been planned for the hero film, to capture millennial audiences while also still reaching Dulux’s core, high-value audiences too. Throughout, Ogilvy, WPP Media, and AkzoNobel remained tightly aligned to ensure the work landed consistently across every channel strategy, states Waldron.

And there’s branded merch too.

With the campaign launching around the family time of Easter, Dulux also wanted to recognise the key life-stage of becoming pet parenthood. To do so, the team activated National Pet Parenthood Day with retailers and influencers, creating bespoke social content tapping into the trend of people becoming pet parents before human parents — fitting nearly with the return of the Dulux dog.

That includes an in-store customer promotion offering free toys of the Dulux dog with purchase, which Balloch reveals generated far higher redemptions than expected while strengthening brand love. More instore activity is set to follow in the second half of the year. Further branded merchandise produced for pet parents includes dog towels, dog leads, and mugs.

As this is the beginning of a three year strategy, the dog is set to take an even more prominent and playful role as the campaign evolves, she continues.

“We always knew that the Dulux dog' is ‘stardust’ but we probably forgot it for a little bit of time,” admits Balloch about the brand’s recent past. “But the warmth from all generations about the Dulux dog taking a more starring role has been phenomenal - even the amount of people that have been posting their own pictures of their old English sheepdog from all over the world,” she adds.

Key metrics of success for the campaign will be around brand equity, specifically improving consideration and preference, as Dulux does not lack awareness. Now its priority is restoring relevance and emotional connection with the audience, ultimately, translating into sales.

The early result is the production of strong creative work and a robust strategic platform that Dulux can continue to build on — including plans to take the strategy beyond the UK into other markets.