Soap & Glory
I recently worked in a small team to deliver a Facebook application for the fun, fearless and retro cosmetics brand Soap and Glory. Whilst S&G craft many shower and bath products, they wanted to develop a campaign to promote resourceful use of water, and the positive effects that saving water can have on the environment. Whilst S&G have a large fan base and high level of consumer engagement on social media platforms, where better to promote the campaign than Facebook?
I worked in a small team to aid the client with the creative strategy of the campaign and technical aspects of developing applications for Facebook. Whilst Facebook’s ever growing platform for developers increases in popularity, so does it’s rules and regulations for brands leveraging the platforms ability to interact with target markets. We worked closely with Facebook’s guidelines adhere to regulations without inhibiting the experience and it’s potential for social engagement.
My fundamental role was to provide Project Management and planning, including the wireframing and technical specification for the app. Many revisions were required to ensure the application was just right, from copyrighting to technical functionality and browser testing. Working with S&G on this project was a thoroughly enjoyable and insightful process with a wonderful outcome.
The 2 Minute Rinse
Marcia Kilgore, the entrepreneur who founded Soap and Glory was talking with a green expert who said that one of Britain’s biggest environmental challenges would soon be water shortage. From this the idea of the “2 minute rinse” was born. Effectively a shower which only uses 2 minutes of running water, which after research undertaken by S&G staff, was determined to be the minimum required amount.
User Journey
Once the idea was conceived S&G worked on the creative development of the concept, storyboarding the user journey and how the application would work. Features included an internal Facebook wall, downloadable water facts infographic, downloadable 2MR profile pics, a competition with data capture, and an interactive infographic which updates to depict total water saved by everyone who takes the pledge and logs their 2 minute rinse within the application.
Technical Build Phase
I worked with the talented Stephen Forster-Brass who developed the Facebook application using XHTML, CSS, PHP, AJAX and Javascript. The application runs from a MySQL database and sits in an iframe accessible from S&G’s Facebook page.
