Tide Loads of Hope for Haiti
Best Multicultural/Ethnic Campaign
Best use of a Promotion Campaign Executed Outside the U.S.
Best Creative
Agency: Gigunda Group
Campaign: Tide Loads of Hope Haiti
Client: Tide, a Procter & Gamble Brand
Tide’s disaster relief effort, Loads of Hope, brings free full-service laundry to devastated areas and gives residents and relief workers a simple, basic comfort: clean clothes.
When Haiti’s earthquake destroyed the laundry facilities of The National University Hospital in Port-au-Prince and of Zanmi Beni, a home for abandoned children and orphans with disabilities, Tide knew it wouldn’t be able to get its 18-wheeler in. They sent the Loads of Hope team to Haiti to assess the situation and come back with a plan.
After much assessment, the team came up with a sustainable plan that involved constructing brand new fully functional industrial-sized laundry facilities. They partnered with Operation Blessing International, a Haitian-established humanitarian organization to make connections, secure local labor resources and coordinate shipping and customs logistics.
Tide’s five-person construction crew supervised the complete renovation of the laundry facility at the hospital. Rather than bring in outside plumbers, electricians and painters, the team hired local tradesmen to do the work, deconstructing the old facilities and rebuilding them from the ground up, including new water supply lines, new electrical systems, a new roof and lightening package, fresh paint and drains to accommodate eight industrial washers and dryers that were built to order in the U.S.
Industrial fans installed in the ceiling brought cheers and some tears by the hospital staff as they had never had such a luxury. When construction was complete, Tide’s team spent a day training hospital staff on equipment operation and provided them with two palettes of Tide Laundry detergent. Tide continues to donate laundry detergent and has donated six palettes to date.
The crew did the same for the Zanmi Beni orphanage laundry facility. Then prior to leaving, they handed over four palettes of toys and games, baby supplies, new clothing and school supplies that they had personally collected back home. Finally, the crew donated all the equipment and supplies they had brought with them – from ladders to drills to extra paint – to Operation Blessing.
Film company FLOW Non-Fiction followed the crew every step of the way, and the final documentary, “Espwa” (meaning hope in Creole) was featured at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Today, workers at the hospital and the orphanage are collectively doing between 50-60 loads of laundry per day. The effort generated 24.2 million media impressions.
