Dive Brief:

• Tide has partnered with the NFL as part of its environmentally focused efforts to encourage consumers to wash clothes in cold water, per details emailed to Marketing Dive.
• Fans can enter to win a Tide Cold Washer, a talking washing machine that features the voices of 10 NFL players including quarterback Matt Ryan, who is also featured in new TV spots. In addition, select NFL teams will turn their official logos blue, use blue lights during games and share their customized washing machines on social.
• The NFL partnership extends Tide's #TurnToCold campaign, which is part of the P&G brand's broad 2030 Ambition environmental pledge that seeks, among other things, to increase the number of loads washed in cold water by U.S. households to three out of four.

Dive Insight:

Tide's latest effort allows the P&G brand to deliver its environmentally focused message to members of the 80 million households that watch NFL games. The latest iteration of a 12-year-long relationship with the league continues the brand's push to get consumers to wash clothes in cold water instead of hot, and Tide claims that if NFL fans make the switch, the resulting 16 billion loads of laundry would reduce an amount of greenhouse gas emissions equal to removing more than one million cars from the road for a year.

The #TurnToCold campaign is part of Tide's own 2030 Ambition pledge, and demonstrates how a brand can deliver a purpose-driven message about sustainability while still marketing its product. Along with the environmental benefits, Tide claims that switching to cold can save the average consumer $150 a year on their energy bills, and that clothes last longer and look brighter. But even with a campaign that promises to help the environment and consumers, marketers must still cut through the clutter as more brands embrace sustainability messaging.

"Meeting consumers in unexpected ways [with] different influential voices like those in the NFL to share those benefits is another way that we can increase the resonance [of the campaign]," Tide brand director Alex Perez told Marketing Dive. "Pairing up the right benefits with the right messaging with the right kind of vehicle to get in front of people ultimately drives a sustainable habit change."

The campaign includes TV commercials starring Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, who is nicknamed "Matty Ice." The giveaway of what the brand claims is the first-ever talking washing machine could interest more NFL fans in the effort, as could the social element and other team actions.

Along with an infomercial spot for the Tide Cold Washer, the brand has added Ryan to its roster of Tide Cold Callers, which includes celebrities Ice-T and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. The pair previously appeared in a series of spots, created with Saatchi & Saatchi NY, that ran across broadcast TV, online video, digital, social, radio and in-store.

The Tide Cold Caller spots have used humor to deftly message around sustainability, an issue that some marketers have mishandled by opting for self-serving messages rather than a transformative approach that better connects with consumer expectations.