How this toilet paper brand made £38.7m in 2023
Yes, I give a crap!
Hi there,
I never thought I’d write a case study about toilet paper.
I mean how interesting is it to market that? How creative can you get? Can you even build a D2C challenger brand off of that?
The answer is a big yes. Who Gives A Crap is making people give a crap about toilet paper, with £38.7m in revenue in 2023 that is a healthy 8 figures.
Even more importantly they are making an impact with that growth. 50% of all proceeds go towards helping build toilets and improving sanitation in the developing world. They believe in toilet paper that builds toilets.
So how are they doing it? Together with Lola Hylander, we analysed their full funnel to figure out what they are doing well and what you can take away to flush your competitors down the loo (I couldn’t resist a few toilet jokes throughout). To read the full article click below.
The strong foundations are in place
You can have the best ads and landing page, but time and time again I’ve seen brands still struggle because of this one thing:
Don’t have a clear reason why you should choose them.
Who Gives A Crap doesn’t have this problem. They open up the truth about other toilet papers. How most are having a negative impact on the environment and most recycled ones aren’t as sustainable as they claim.
They offer a sustainable choice that is cheaper than regular toilet paper that works out cheaper per sheet than most regular toilet paper brands whilst still being comfy and soft.
I said this a while back and I still believe it’s true. The future of D2C brands are sustainable brands that:
Make behavioural change minimum (e.g. they don’t require a big effort on the consumer’s side)
Are affordable (too many sustainable brands are still a premium product).
Who Gives A Crap, does both incredibly well. Mix in their funky branding and they can wipe away the competition in a breeze.
Meta ads to drive traffic
One of the ways that Who Gives A Crap came on our radar as a potential case study brand was their very active presence on Facebook and Instagram. We’d both been served their colourful funky ads a few times.
They seem to be testing quite a wide range of statics and video ads. Now we don’t have insights sadly into how these are performing, but here are a few interesting ones we wanted to highlight.
Example 1: UGC style statics
UGC content feels like it is back on the rise. While people are getting more sceptical about influencers, it still seems to be some of the best-performing content. What works well these days too is real-looking statics. Who Gives a Crap does this well.
They often combine it with a bit of crude toilet humour. We like it, it makes for a unique tone of voice and also is very fitting of a challenger brand:
It’s easy to underestimate the copy with Meta ads, but it does play a crucial ‘roll’.
Example ad 2: Clean static with offer
This felt like more of a bottom of the funnel ad. A limited time offer to get you over the line and stock up. We liked that it conveys the value of the gift but it doesn’t really explain what a dream cloth is.
Compare this to their video ad talking about the dream cloth, where it explains how a dream cloth holds 13x its weight in water. That makes you think, oh wow, that sounds like a lot, before promptly realising you have no idea whatsoever what a normal cloth holds after buying your 48 loo rolls… oh crap.
Your entry offer is so key. I like a free gift like this as it doesn’t devalue the main product like a discount would, but you need to not forget to sell the value of both the gift and the main product too.
Summary of ads
Whilst the branding and words are catchy, we do feel that some of their ads could be stronger. Mainly with actually making it clearer why you should want the free gift and till when that offer is available to drive urgency.
Also, they do offer subscriptions, but don’t seem to highlight the benefits of it. Let’s be honest, there is nothing more awkward than running out of toilet paper, only to have to make an emergency stop at the store where you only actually need to buy toilet paper but buy a few random things to make yourself feel less embarrassed. This feels like golden ad material waiting to happen.
In our full-funnel analysis, Lola and I next look into Who Gives A Crap’s Landing Page, Toilet Paper Quiz, Product Page and Cart / Checkout. To read the rest of the analysis, click here.
So do we give a crap?
There are lots of things to take away from Who Gives a Crap’s ads:
How to build a strong brand identity and tone of voice
How to be a cheeky challenger brand
That you can make toilet paper fun
But it feels like they are missing:
A better flow from ad to landing page, sending people to the category page for most of the ads feels strange
Clearer offers as to why to convert or subscribe, these don’t have to be discounts but better explaining the free gift and the value of it
Recommendation
This year I’ve been doing more case studies, if you enjoyed this one, definitely also check out the other two I shared earlier this year:
Analysing brands outside your niche is always a worthwhile exercise. The reason I started doing more breakdowns, is because it helped me identify opportunities for the brands I work with. So much so that Instagram is ruined for me because I go down endless customer journeys.
If you don’t have time to do your own analyses, reading these breakdowns is definitely the next best thing.
Until next week,
Daphne