AdMiration feature: Brawny’s “Treehouse”

For this week’s AdMiration feature, we looked at consumer response to Brawny’s “Treehouse” ad, which is part of their new campaign and brand refresh that includes the comeback of Brawny Man, the lumberjack figure that debuted more than 50 years ago.

Read on to get our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection) and learn how their ad was received based on our data.

The ad opens to a treehouse at dusk with “Sarah’s Clubhouse” painted across the doorway. Inside, a group of young girls are gathered as Sarah holds a flashlight to her face, in classic ghost storytelling fashion, saying,“I heard if you make a big mess and blow through a whole paper towel tube, the Brawny Man appears!” 

“Yeah, right, Sarah,” one girl responds, as another says, “Prove it” and knocks over their table of pizza and snacks, including a big jug of soda, which starts spraying everywhere. The girls scream and Sarah holds an empty paper towel tube to her mouth and calls, “Brawnyyyy!” 

To their surprise, the ground begins to shake and the giant Brawny Man appears in the treehouse doorway with a roll of Brawny paper towels and says, “Brawny three-ply?” as he reaches in to hand it to the girls. All still as stone, Sarah slowly turns on a walkie talkie and says, “Dad…he’s real.” 

The scene pans to a view outside of the treehouse where her Dad is seen holding the other walkie talkie and staring at Brawny Man as he whispers, “I know” in awe, giving him a little wave. 

The ad concludes with a paper towel comparison of Brawny vs Bounty atop their classic red background as a voiceover states, “Only Brawny has three plies. It’s new, and it’s stronger than Bounty. Summon the strongest.” The ad closes with a shot of Brawny paper towels and “Brawnyyyy” being called out.     

3 facts

• Brawny’s ad performed incredibly well with consumers, landing in the top 5% of US ads for potential to drive immediate sales (Sales Impact: 95) and in the top 15% to drive brand equity over the longer term (Brand Impact: 87).

• The spot successfully reintroduces not only their brand mascot but also their brand, with “Brawny” (89%) and “towels” (43%) the top words used when describing the story of the ad and brand recall, which is 75% (compared to 68% norm).  

• This ad also does a fantastic job at communicating the value of Brawny products. After viewing the ad, audiences felt that Brawny delivers what they expect from a surface care brand (Brand Meets Needs: 4.3 vs. 4.0 norm) and that Brawny is different from other surface care brands (Brand Distinctiveness: 4.0 vs. 3.7 norm). On top of that, it communicates that Brawny paper towels are particularly “strong” with 75% of people stating the case — one the strongest message take outs we’ve seen

2 learnings

• The power of nostalgia strikes again! Both the scenario of storytelling in the treehouse with ghost stories and the return of the Brawny Man brings nostalgia to this ad and really helps it hit an emotional chord. People love the tone of the ad describing it as nostalgic, cute, sweet, fun and lighthearted. As some viewers shared "I liked that it was a cute sleepover. Very nostalgic" and "I loved the superstition vibe and the characters interest in proving or debunking said superstition.” 

• This is a great example of an ad that successfully appeals emotionally and delivers a functional message about the product. Often, when an ad focuses on the product, specific messages or a product demo, it can be dull and people don't notice or remember the ad or associations. In this case, the ad is emotionally appealing through the narrative, scenario and characters — all of which really hooked people in, dramatized the role of the brand and included a mini product demo — which came together to successfully create a distinctive ad, clearly for the brand, that also leaves no doubt about the product's key feature: its strength.

1 reflection

Does your brand mascot connect with the consumers of today? Or is it time for a reintroduction? Recently, several large brands have recognized the power of a brand character, while also recognizing the need to refresh them for today, allowing their character to come across in new channels and contexts and become part of the next generation. In this campaign, they not only successfully reintroduce Brawny Man, but also themselves as a brand and how they should be seen, alongside their new three-ply paper towel product. Brawny man becomes a hero for people again, bringing his strength to the biggest challenges and bringing warmth and meaning to the brand.  

Brawny’s “Treehouse” spot is one of a series of three ads for their latest “Summon the Strongest” campaign, which revives and revamps their classic Brawny Man mascot. 

Created by JOAN creative agency and Bulletproof, the campaign introduces the new Brawny 3-Ply, the strongest product in the brand’s history in addition to a real-life Brawny Man for the first time ever.    

This reintroduction of Brawny Man also serves as a reintroduction of the brand and their latest brand refresh (the most integrated campaign Brawny has done in years) to reconnect with consumers. 

Holly Karlsson, creative director at Bulletproof, shares, “We saw the opportunity to bring new dimension to his visual identity — not by changing who he is, but by elevating what has always made him iconic. The result is a Brawny Man who feels heroic yet relatable, dependable, and relevant to today’s consumer.”

On the revamped Brawny Man himself, Jaime Robinson, co-founder and chief creative officer at JOAN, shares, “The way he behaves in modern contexts and comes to life across the channels we all engage with defines what it means to make legendary brands relevant in today’s world.” 

The full campaign elements include broadcast, digital and social executions, with influencers and creators sharing what “Summon the Strongest” means in their own lives.

This was a true lesson in a brand refresh done right from Brawny! “Treehouse” was incredibly well-received by consumers, landing in the top 5% of US ads for potential to drive immediate sales (Sales Impact: 95) and in the top 15% to drive brand equity over the longer term (Brand Impact: 87).

Even though the original Brawny Man has been around for 50 years, this didn’t stop the brand finding a way to refresh him for today. Viewers found the spot to be highly distinctive (Distinctiveness: 4.0 vs. 3.8 norm) and thoroughly enjoyed watching it, finding the storytelling and the messaging to be very relevant (Enjoyment: 4.1 vs. 3.9 norm, Relevance: 3.9 vs. 3.6 norm).

Bringing back Brawny, in a different form, combined with a great story that dramatizes the value of the product (its strength) resulted in an ad that people couldn’t fail to realize was for Brawny. Brand recall was 75% versus a norm of 68% and “Brawny” (89%) and “towels” (43%) were the top words used to describe the story of the ad, ensuring the brand was truly integrated into the story establishing brand memories.

What’s more, the ad not only made viewers feel that Brawny delivers what they expect from a surface care brand (Brand Meets Needs: 4.3 vs. 4.0 norm) and that Brawny is different from other surface care brands (Brand Distinctiveness: 4.0 vs. 3.7 norm), but it also made them feel good about the Brawny brand (Brand Appeal: 4.1 vs. 3.9 norm) — a true win for a brand refresh campaign. 

Even further, viewers note that the ad communicates important things about Brawny paper towels, in particular that they are “strong,” with 75% saying Brawny is “strong,” 53% saying it is “fast absorbing” and 49% saying it’s a “trusted brand” (vs. a 39% norm), which is a fantastic result for a challenger brand trying to take on the market leader. 

Additionally, the message that “Brawny is the strength you can reach for, whenever life gets messy” is seen as clear (Key message clarity: 4.4 vs. 4.2 norm) and believable (4.3 vs. 4.1 norm), and the ad does a great job at communicating the brand’s featured three-ply product (New information: 4.0 vs. 3.7 norm) with people saying things like: "I like the fact that Brawny now offers 3 ply and is stronger than my current brand Bounty", "The new 3 ply is awesome" and "I liked the humor in this ad and the paper towels that is 3 ply" — all of which ladders up to the wonderful purchase uplift seen after watching the ad (38% vs. 20% norm).

Unsurprisingly, many positive emotions were evoked from the ad — including a lot of  laughter (13% vs. an 8% norm). It all kicks off with a mix of Love and Like as the audience is introduced to the girls talking about the Brawny man. We get our highest peak of Laughter and some Surprise as the table collapses and soda shoots everywhere, followed by more laughter as Sarah calls the Brawny Man.

More Love and Like are felt as the Brawny man appears to save the day, followed by more Laughter as the Dad is shown to be standing outside watching the Brawny Man in awe. More Love and Like round out the spot as the quick demonstration of Brawny paper towels takes place, ultimately ending on a high of Love. Having emotionally engaged people in a story, the demo versus Bounty is exceptionally well received and a real cut above a normal product demo that people are too used to seeing.

Overall, this spot held many successful elements, from great storytelling to sprinkles of nostalgia, a well-done true-to-life mascot, excellent differentiator communication and well-done proof point at the end to wrap it all up. 

Here’s what some people had to say about the ad:

• "I loved the superstition vibe and the characters interest in proving or debunking said superstition. I also loved how a huge mess of destruction was created with no effort, just a single poke of a finger."

• "I like that the brawny man came to the girl's rescue when a huge mess was made saving the day and handing them the big roll of the 3-ply paper towels and letting them know that brawny can take care of it and remain strong enough to get through the whole mess."

• "Chuckled at the end when you saw that she was working with dad. Emphasized the strength of brawny which is what the product is known for."

• "It was funny and cute. Also the grown up waving to him like a kid waving to Santa was great also."

• "I liked that it was a cute sleepover. Very nostalgic."

• "Showed how you can clean up spills and messes easily."

What an excellent refresh and excellent storytelling from Brawny! What did you think? Let us know by interacting with our coverage of the ad on LinkedIn.

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