Thinkbox
Serious Tissues takes a light-hearted approach to tackling a very serious problem. At least 10 million trees are cut down every year for toilet paper and Serious Tissues is on a mission to change this by becoming the UK’s first carbon-neutral toilet paper where for every roll sold, a tree is planted. In 2022, they were selected as the winner of the Sky Zero Footprint Fund Grand Prix. The £1 million media value prize offered the company an opportunity to spread its message to a wider audience via TV advertising.
So, how did the idea for the award-winning ad come about and what can other brands - hoping to make a more positive impact on the environment – do the same? We spoke to some of the team at Wonderhood behind the ad to find out.
Senior creatives James Rafter and Myles Vincent at Wonderhood describe their creative approach to making the winning ad. “The illustrator George(s) had developed the brand’sidentity by creating some upbeat characters that matched the brand’s ethos and tone,” they say. “Taking centre stage were two friendly trees with cheery faces, a nod to the brand’s optimistic outlook and positive impact. What we needed to do next was share Serious Tissue’s mission with the world, so we set out to make the brand’s first-ever TV ad promoting the sustainable loo roll.”
The agency took the existing tree characters brand identity, created by Brilliant Artists and George(s), and sought to make use of them in a simple and engaging way. “We enlisted the help of our animation friends Oh Studio and Hannah Lau-Walker to bring George(s) illustrations to life in an animated form. At the crux of the brief was: simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.
“When we were thinking of a core concept for our scripts, we had the idea of ‘endorsed by trees’. A simple idea that, because of the amazing eco credentials of Serious Tissues, they would be the only brand of toilet paper that trees would love... If trees could talk.”
Creating an animated spot, the agency enlisted Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Emily Lloyd-Saini to voice the brand mascots. In the ad, the pair spot a naked protestor who is agitated about the fact that toilet paper contributes to 15 per cent of deforestation. They point out that Serious Tissues doesn't cut down trees, but instead plants them.
Environmentally responsible ad production
Obviously, the fact that Serious Tissues was an environmentally responsible brand informed the way that the ad was created, to reduce its carbon footprint too. Natasha Johnson, head of production at Wonderhood, says: “The environmental impact of our production process was high on our priority list and was something we knew we were going to be judged on as part of entering the Sky Net Zero Fund. Travel was definitely out. This is almost always disproportionately the biggest part of the carbon footprint of a shoot.
“In the early stages of creative development before we decided on the animated route, we discussed the potential of shooting using low-carbon shooting equipment such as drones and remote shooting setups.
“However, we quickly landed on an animated, brand-character approach that worked creatively as well as from an impact perspective. A hand-drawn animated ad was less than a fifth the carbon footprint of even a one-day shoot inside the M25 with minimum travel. We then worked with a tight team, two animators and one illustrator, working remotely.”
Much like its client Serious Tissues, Wonderhood takes its environmental responsibilities seriously. Since 2022, the agency has partnered with Greenscreen - an offshoot of Greenshoot - an educational and social enterprise programme to help businesses reduce their carbon footprint. Johnson says that it collaborates with them in everything it does, most notably in productions. “They work with us and our production partners to advise us on how our work is produced and then audit our project pushing us to achieve a Green Stamp accreditation. This type of oversight forces us to hold ourselves to account and adhere to meaningful actions from the small changes, i.e., no plastic water bottles on set to the larger ones such as shooting remotely,” she says.
Rather than being a straitjacket, Wonderhood has found the experience of working within the parameters of low-carbon production liberating and that it helps provides more interesting creative solutions. “Our advice would be to lean into low-carbon production and embrace it,” says Johnson. “Advertising should be, and is, at its best when it’s simple.”
TV helping to drive reach
What’s more, winning the award through this creatively engaging yet low-carbon approach has helped push Serious Tissues’ ambitions further. “This is an enormous leap forward in a brand’s marketing lifecycle, getting it onto TV much sooner than it would have otherwise. TV still allows brands to reach much wider audiences and deliver awareness and uplifts much more effectively than performance media,” says Serious Tissues’ co-founder Martin McAllister. And, critically, Serious Tissues will continue to plant trees for every product sold.
Serious tissues naked protestor is a great example of an engaging, sustainably made TV ad for a category changing sustainable product. Doubly sustainable. And here’s to it working its magic…
Background
The Sky Zero Footprint Fund, which is open to media agencies, creative agencies, and brands, is a £2 million initiative to support brands that are committed to driving positive behavioural change and tangible impact towards a more sustainable future. It is designed to accelerate and amplify their initiatives to change the world for the better through the power of TV and advertising.
The 2022 winner, Serious Tissues, which produces 100 per cent recycled toilet roll, was selected as the winner of the Grand Prix £1 million media value prize ahead of Sky’s other four finalists – Ecosia, Homethings, Royal Mail, and WUKA – by a panel of judges. All five shortlisted businesses had already secured £250,000 in media value as part of the scheme, with Serious Tissues receiving an extra £750,000.
The judges described the Grand Prix-winner as a “category-changing product” and said that they were particularly impressed by the compelling way their mission was displayed throughout their ad, written and produced by Wonderhood Studios, with Brilliant Artists and Oh Studio. The campaign launched to the wider public in April 2023 using AdSmart to reach audiences in a selection of UK regions across Sky Media’s Linear TV, and later featured on Sky’s VOD service.
