An award for consistently practised sustainability: The Frosch brand of the cleaning products company Werner & Mertz wins the prestigious Brand Award 2020 in the category Best Sustainability Strategy with its „Clean Oceans“ campaign.
„An extremely credible first mover“, was the verdict of the expert jury. „The Sustainability strategy of the company will be continued consistently, with major implications for society.“
„With this important award, we can prove all the more to the market that credible sustainability - as we live it - is understood and counts. Especially at a time when there is controversy about which path our economy should take,“ says Werner & Mertz owner Reinhard Schneider.
Campaign raises awareness of a complex issue
Since the brand was founded in 1986, Frosch has stood for Organic quality. Originally known as a pioneer of „gentle chemistry“, since 2012 the formulations have been increasingly Focus on ecological packaging. Werner & Mertz launched the Recyclate Initiative, in which cooperation partners along the entire value chain are participating to promote the development of packaging with a high proportion of used plastic from the Yellow Bag. With great success: developed according to the so-called Cradle to cradle principle For a circular economy, the plastic bottles for Frosch brand detergents and cosmetic products are now being recycled. with 100 per cent recycled plastic and are fully recyclable.
In order to familiarise consumers with the complex issue of sustainable packaging, Frosch 2017 the „Clean Oceans“ campaign - which was not so easy at first:
„While consumers can be reached very easily via colourful and fragrant natural ingredients such as orange terpenes, it is much more difficult with packaging issues. Packaging per se is not sensory and therefore not very sensual. Any communication that started off on the wrong foot here would have been doomed to failure.“
Wolfgang Feiter, Head of Consumer Marketing Erdal-Rex and responsible for the Frosch brand
With Hannes Jaenicke against marine pollution
The fact that the Frosch brand has struck the right note with the campaign is not only proven by the Steady sales growth of the brand, but now also the honour of the brand award.
Frosch's pioneering role in plastic bottles made from recyclate is conveyed emotionally in short, catchy messages. Initially launched purely as a POS measure in retail, the campaign moved into traditional media in 2018, with the topics being explored in greater depth on online platforms and via social media. As an additional Hannes Jaenicke could be won as brand ambassador, who has been working with Frosch for several years on the The issue of marine plastic pollution draws attention to this.
„I am very pleased that this award also increases our chances of winning over further supporters for our cause both within and outside of our industry in order to increase the overall benefit for the environment,“ said Reinhard Tailor.
Next milestone: The fully recyclable refill bag
In addition to plastic bottles made from used plastic, Frosch already uses on refill bags since 1991, because they save up to 70 per cent plastic compared to a bottle of the same volume. Recently it is Werner & Mertz in cooperation with the Mondi packaging group succeeded in creating a fully recyclable bag made of mono-material (polyethylene) with removable sleeve according to the Cradle to Cradle principles.
The patented solution is pioneering: the pouch has a completely unprinted main body. For this purpose, a Extremely thin printed sleeve on which the product information can be found. This band is automatically separated from the main body during processing, which can then be recycled to a high standard.
The first Frosch refill bags of this type are already on the market: Washing-up liquid and hand soap refill bags. The rest of the range will be completely reorganised this year. This Innovation and world first will soon be communicated to consumers as part of the „Clean Oceans“ campaign.
[infotext icon] About the Brand Award:The German Marketing Association and the marketing magazine absatzwirtschaft have been honouring excellence in brand management with the Brand Award since 2001. A high-calibre jury of experts from management, marketing, media and agencies decides on the winners. Due to the coronavirus, the live pitch of the eight finalists to the jury took place in the form of a video conference this year, and the winners were announced afterwards[/infotext].
Source: Werner & Mertz GmbH
