The bottle was designed to open in two halves. This allowed purchasers to fill empty packaging with water to prove the 2 litre absorbency claim, and then post their results online as the ‘2 Litre Towel’ challenge. Standing out from commoditised generic towel ranges, it generated significant social media exposure. The 2 Litre Towel sold at a 100% increase on previous retail price. The first run of 2,000 towels sold out in-store in less than 3 weeks, and online sold out in 3 days. Best of all, housed in country Victoria, the last cotton mill in Australia is again thriving.
Australian Weaving makes great towels, but most shoppers buy the cheap, imported towels. Australian Weaving didn’t have a budget for advertising, however we could change their packaging.
We tested the absorbency of our towels and discovered they could soak up almost twice the water of cheap, imported towels. To reinforce our unique selling point, the towels were packaged in 2 litre plastic bottles and displayed in refrigerators in-store. The plastic bottle packaging provided a simple, physical way to help shoppers reframe what they should be thinking about when purchasing a towel: absorption.
