The What: Eco-friendly Clorox brand Green Works wanted to communicate its brand ethos that green products should be available and affordable to all. So the brand teamed up with digital marketing agency Critical Mass to create an app that ostensibly has dolphins do the talking. The Dolphin Translator app works thusly: Type a message into the app’s text field and an eager dolphin will swim onto your screen and transmute your message into the clicks and clacks of dolphin speak, which you can then share via email or social.
The Objective: The campaign has two main goals. First, it’s intended to position Green Works as an accessible brand that clearly explains what it means to be green without confusing lingo and logos. Second, it’s designed to raise money for the Dolphin Communication Project, a nonprofit that studies dolphin behavior and cognition. For every message shared, Green Works has promised to donate $1 to the nonprofit.
The Creative: Some words prompt the translator to kick back digital “Easter eggs,” such as “love,” resulting in the dolphin giving the screen a big, wet kiss. The word “yoga” causes the dolphin to jump out of its tank and do a marine mammal version of downward dog.
The Results: In just three weeks after its June launch, the app doubled page views for greenworkscleaners.com and roughly 30,000 translations were made.
The Customer View: Reactions were mixed. Although some applauded the brand’s effort—one Facebook fan effused, “Omg I love it and I am obsessed over dolphins…”—others, such as this Twitter user, were less fulsome in their praise: “‘AK AK EEK AK!’ Yes, a dolphin translator. Er, well done @greenworks for today’s looniest thing.”
