UK | Unilever Home Care power brands Dirt Is Good (Persil) and Comfort has partnered with Samsung to transform the future of home laundry and deliver unmissably superior products.
There have been many innovative changes in the world of laundry. Shifts in consumer habits and behaviours mean that needs have evolved. It’s about shorter and more sustainable wash cycles, new fabric types, and stains today.
To create a more seamless and sustainable laundry experience for consumers, Dirt Is Good brands (OMO, Persil, Surf Excel, Breeze, Ala, Skip, Rinso) and Comfort has partnered with Samsung to begin co-creating a new ‘laundry lifestyle’.
This strategic partnership is an example of Unilever’s Growth Action Plan, which has focused investment on bigger and better innovations to deliver unmissable superiority.
The aim has been to combine future learnings and insights for a fully end-to-end view of the new ‘laundry lifestyle’. This will empower R&D teams to harness the rapid evolution of technology in both the laundry and consumer technology sectors to drive category growth and innovation.
Together, Dirt Is Good, Comfort, and Samsung will explore how to deliver a fully connected laundry experience by combining technology from both sectors, unlocking insights into how AI and intelligent technologies could make laundry more convenient, more straightforward, and tailored to modern-day living and laundry needs.
“Up until now, washing machines and laundry products have been developed in isolation, but this partnership with Samsung will see us co-create the future of laundry faster and more agile than ever before,” said Eduardo Campanella, Business Group President, Unilever Home Care.
“We’ll be able to combine changing consumer behaviours with in-home technology trends, creating a smarter approach to laundry that suits today’s busy lifestyles.”
Short cycles represent the fastest-growing value driver in the laundry category. They have the potential to grow the category incrementally by 21 percent yearly and are expected to be worth up to €2 billion by 2026.
Persil’s Wonder Wash was tested using top-of-the-range Samsung bespoke AI washing machines at the Port Sunlight R&D hub, the home of Unilever laundry innovation. This technology-packed product has been designed explicitly for 15-minute cold cycles, which are increasingly used.
These cycles also help consumers save up to 30 percent on water consumption and up to 60 percent on energy use compared to longer wash cycles.
Earlier this year, Samsung also created a new app feature that allowed users to scan detergent barcodes to determine the right amount of detergent for a wash cycle. This saved time and product, making the laundry cycle more efficient and sustainable.
Unilever provided access to the relevant laundry liquids data—from Dirt Is Good and Comfort—to help Samsung build a stronger database and a more convenient experience for consumers.
“We know laundry isn’t always a topic that gets people talking, so this partnership creates new opportunities for us to speak directly to savvy shoppers looking to do their laundry smarter,” said Tati Lindenberg, VP of Marketing at Dirt Is Good.
“In addition to combining our laundry insights and expertise, the collaboration will involve innovation and cross-channel activations to engage consumers in what is often viewed as a household chore.”
At the top end of the market, washing machines have become more competent. Ninety percent have short cycles and now routinely include 15-minute cold washes. There has also been a rapid increase in the inclusion of auto-dosing features.
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