Australian tissue brand Sorbent is backing its new DermaCare line with a claim that matters in a category full of softness promises: the product is, the brand says, the softest, strongest and most absorbent tissue on the Australian market. To make that land, Sorbent and Melbourne agency The Reactor have built a campaign around a feeling everyone who has ever had a cold knows too well.
The product truth comes first
The new work is called “Do your face a favour,” and it is rolling out across out-of-home, digital and social to support the DermaCare launch. Sorbent’s Senior Brand Manager, Harry Saxon, frames the launch as a genuine step change in product quality. Saxon told Campaign Brief that DermaCare performs significantly better than any other option currently available, combining what he describes as unparalleled softness with the strength and absorbency consumers need when their skin is at its most sensitive.
On a crowded tissue shelf, that matters. Rather than entering another price or discount battle, the campaign treats the product upgrade itself as the headline. That is a risky but refreshing choice in a commodity category where softness claims have become table stakes.
Giving cold symptoms a voice
The creative strategy leans on the product’s emotional use case instead of a technical demo. The Reactor’s Head of Strategy, Angus Smallwood, explained the insight: anyone who has had a cold, flu or allergy peak knows how irritated the eyes and nose get, to the point where “you can almost hear them complaining.” So the agency gave those symptoms a voice.
That personification does the heavy lifting. The campaign dramatises a universal, slightly miserable experience and positions DermaCare as the relief. It is a useful reminder that functional categories still sell on feeling, especially when the product claim is already strong.
The jingle gets a second run
The Reactor’s Creative Director, Nick Brown, said the team enjoyed working with classic brand assets, including the much-loved Sorbent jingle, to bring the idea to life in a way that feels fresh and nostalgically comforting. Reintroducing a familiar sonic asset is a smart shortcut: it borrows years of brand memory while the new creative handles the product education.
What marketers can steal
The campaign stacks three layers in an order worth copying:
- Product proof first: a claim you can substantiate, stated plainly.
- Emotional pain point second: the universal discomfort of cold and flu season.
- Heritage asset last: the jingle that makes it feel familiar and shareable.
For teams working on commodity brands, the lesson is sequence. Do not lead with the joke or the nostalgia. Land the reason to believe, then wrap it in the feeling and the memory. The humour earns attention; the product claim earns the switch. Before your next launch, audit which dormant brand assets could carry a new message with a short, sharp twist.
What to watch
With OOH, digital and social already live, the next few weeks will show whether the personified symptoms and the returning jingle drive measurable interest as Australia heads into cold and flu season. If it works, expect more heritage brands to dust off retired assets and repoint them at new product claims.
Source: Campaign Brief
