P&G spikes Lever as Hotpoint backs Ariel

Procter & Gamble has usurped rival Lever Fabergé’s long-standing relationship with white goods maker Hotpoint, with a forthcoming co-marketing campaign to promote its Ariel brand.

Lever Fabergé has marketed its Persil brand jointly with Hotpoint since the Eighties. In 2000, the company launched a television campaign, created by J Walter Thompson, featuring castaways using the Hotpoint machines with Persil. In 1999, the company recruited Jerry Hall to front a TV campaign in association with retailer Debenhams and Hotpoint pushing Persil as “Britain’s most highly recommended washing tablets”.

Industry sources say P&G has agreed a deal with Hotpoint for a “major marketing push” that will begin next month. The company already has relationships with other washing machine manufacturers. Hotpoint is the leading washing machine brand, however, accounting for a quarter of the 2.57 million machines sold in the UK in 2002, according to Mintel.

P&G has a long history of using partners to promote its brands. Most recently, P&G invested more than &£5m in a cross-promotion between its household and cleaning brands and DreamWorks animated movie Shrek 2 (MW May 20).