For us, Cashmere UltraLuxe is the most luxurious toilet paper in Canada. But, if you asked our competition, they might say the same thing about their brands. For decades, the premium toilet paper category has been engaged in a figurative arms race of softness, strength and thickness; functional benefits that most brands claim in an effort to prove their luxuriousness.

Forging luxury associations with a brand is challenging and often achieved by expensive celebrity partnerships, manufacturing scarcity, or massive price premiums. Although Cashmere UltraLuxe is a premium product, these tactics were at odds with the brand’s mass-premium market ambitions and strict budgets.

This campaign had three objectives. Our business objectives were to increase our dollar share and tonnage volume. Additionally, we wanted to drive talk-value with an execution that punched far above its weight in media investment which we would measure via brand mentions (+1000%) and earned media (~20M).

In 2022, the Michelin Guide recognized 13 Toronto restaurants with its esteemed “stars” for the first time. This symbol of culinary excellence sparked a nationwide frenzy among diners. From their inception, Michelin has aimed to help diners find the best restaurants amidst a multitude of options by setting a global standard but the one place their guide overlooked was the bathroom. As any diner knows, restaurant bathrooms are all over the place, with different designs, lighting, bathroom products and degrees of cleanliness.

As a brand that has consistently aimed to elevate the Canadian standards for luxury bathroom experiences, we saw the opportunity to be the only one that could set the standard for luxury bathrooms in the restaurant experience.

Our strategy was to reframe Cashmere UltraLuxe as this authority on the luxurious bathroom experience. This approach aimed to elevate the brand beyond mere product benefits, tapping into the cultural moment to distinguish the brand as the pinnacle of bathroom luxury

We also identified that a niche but vocal community of restaurant diners were already rating and evaluating restaurants based on their bathrooms (in addition to the food and ambiance), however they lacked a consistent framework for deeming one bathroom to be better than another.

We wanted to provide an evaluation framework for diners and an exclusive credential for restaurateurs who care as much about premium bathroom experiences as the Cashmere UltraLuxe brand. Both these audiences would be pivotal for driving conversation, earned media and campaign engagement.

We created the Cashmere UltraLuxe Bathroom Guide: a luxury restaurant bathroom ranking system, modelled on the global Michelin Guide to restaurants, providing a framework for restaurant diners and restaurateurs to evaluate and rank the most luxurious restaurant bathrooms in the country.

We created simple and aspirational criteria to rank and award one, two or three fleurs, inspired by the premium floral print derived from Cashmere UltraLuxe’s unique embossing pattern. Bathrooms scoring 70-79 are “a luxurious experience, worth a look” and earn one fleur. Those scoring 80-89 are “beyond expectations and worth a photo opportunity”, earning two fleurs. The highest honour of three fleurs goes to bathrooms scoring 90-100, recognized as “outstanding and gasp-worthy, worth stopping at the bathroom first”.

Initially, our panel of anonymous judges scoured the city for restaurant bathrooms meeting the criteria of the Cashmere UltraLuxe Bathroom Guide. After deliberation, three restaurants were selected for recognition in our inaugural Toronto guide. We announced these establishments on social media, our website, and through a media tour led by spokesperson Pay Chen. Concurrently, teaser videos across social and digital platforms heralded the guide's launch, informing both restaurateurs and diners of our evaluation process. Finally, we invited our social media audience to nominate bathrooms for future consideration.

Restaurants who achieved a coveted fleur rating were awarded the prestigious Cashmere UltraLuxe Bathroom Guide plaque, to be proudly displayed in their bathrooms.

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The conversation following the launch of the UltraLuxe Bathroom Guide began growing from day one as lifestyle outlets, restaurateurs and industry press began sharing the story online.

In the first 24 hours after launching the guide, the campaign garnered +12.6 million earned impressions.  In total, the campaign generated:

●      +0.2 increase in dollar share (L12W - Period Ending June 15)

●      +15% increase in tonnage volume (L12W - Period Ending June 15)

●      +29M earned impressions (vs. 20M benchmark)

●      +1.4M paid impressions

●      +3900% increase in product mentions within two weeks. (vs. +1000% benchmark)

●      3.6k unique pageviews on the campaign microsite

●      +500k views of the launch film across FB and IG.

●      123 news stories with national coverage.

This was chapter one in what will be a long-term cultural platform for the brand in their enduring effort to be known as Canada’s #1 luxury toilet paper brand.

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