Cleaning products 3.0? Reckitt Benckiser makes an online push to connect with young consumers

Household products giant Reckitt Benkiser (RB) is using online social media and a massive online campaign to launch its first corporate advertising campaign is a bid to make a name for itself with consumers.

The FMCG company, which owns such brands as Vanish and Finish, is to mount a huge online advertising and social media push aimed at people aged 22-32. Andraea Dawson-Shepherd, RB's global corporate affairs director, said: ‘We're doing this because we want to be automatically seen to be in the top three global FMCGs - by anyone who matters.'

The activity launches this week. It will run across six of its international markets including the UK, US, Brazil, India, Russia and Germany. It is part of a wider move to start using social media to create a dialogue with this audience. The ads will direct consumers to the company's ‘Fan Page' on Facebook. The firm said it wants to reach ‘the online chattering classes'.

But the company isn't just targeting consumers. It's reaching out to the next generation of suppliers, employees, consumers and shareholders. It is hoping to reach around 70% of this demographic.

To attract graduates, RB is running a competition, which asks consumers to come up with innovative products for a music festival. Entrants must upload videos describing a product to market. There is £5,000 on offer for the winning entry. Videos will be rated by the public and the top 20 will go through to be judged by a panel.

Andraea Dawson-Shepherd said: ‘Our Powerbrands are already well known. We need to make ourselves better known among the next generation of people considering a career in consumer goods and let them know what the company has to offer.'

The campaign follows RB's announcement in March that it was overhauling its corporate identity to raise its profile and position it as 'The power behind the power brands'. Its old text logo was replaced by a pink kite device containing the letters 'rb'. It was inspired by a sports kite and is intended to reflect the 'loud, confident personalities of its power brands'.

The company is thinking laterally by considering the many roles young people could play in its business. And it is making an effort to get to know this market. Now it must ensure the campaign is relevant enough to encourage this age group to interact with the business.