work? the CILLIT BANG t-shirt debacle

production, creative development, copywriting, search engine optimization, e-commerce, viral marketing – all across a few lazy lunchtimes at deadinsect

At deadinsect, we have sophisticated scientific equipment to predict big Internet fads coming from a long way off. So when the first confused blog writers asked the world whether this ad was real or not, we were ready for the ensuing hysteria. With t-shirts.

campaign
We created a desktop wallpaper mentioning the t-shirts along with our microsite url. This was then seeded through the top search engine results pages for Cillit Bang, to generate hype and pre-orders while our t-shirts were being printed.



Visitors to the microsite were greeted by a gaudy lash-up page, with a cheesy amateur style to echo the roaring cheapness of the TV spot. Tongue-in-cheek copy guided buyers to a secure online payment system, while the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page provided surfers with the answers they were looking for, as well as being a huge hit for links and referrals.

results
At its peak the site pulled in 800 hits a day, and remained on the first page of Google for ‘Cillit Bang’ across the whole month. The limited run of 100 t-shirts @ £13 each sold out within a few weeks, with one of the last proof versions making £42 on eBay!

"Miyagi say Insect who can sell 100 overpriced t-shirts to unrecognised audience can market anything! But first must escape Miyagi chopsticks…"