The marketing challenge and brand insight:
Did you know? The minimal recommended
distance between the toilet bowl and the sink is 180 cm, to prevent
bacterial micro-particles reaching your toothbrush when
flushing.
Launching the new Oral B anti-bacteria
toothbrush we realized that for Israeli consumers bacteria issues
were perceived as completely unrelated to the toothbrush category
and therefore did not reflect an existing need for purchase. In
addition the brush category is considered a low involvement
category where brand and variant choices are mostly made on an
impulse in store.
So our challenge was to communicate a
message our audience didn't want to hear about a category they
didn't really care much about.
Could we find a time and a place when
consumers would be receptive to being educated about the category -
as we aimed to raise awareness of the need for anti-bac, and the
Oral B solution?
The consumer insight and communications strategy:
Following extensive research which
included interviews with oral care professionals as well as focus
groups with our target "gate-keeper" moms, we developed a set of
relevant but provocative insights that were qualified as being able
to raise the bacteria issue in the category. These provocative
insights were all structured as "Did You Know?" trivia-like
questions.
As category learnings showed that
toothbrush purchase is impulsive and decisions (brand/variant) are
mainly made in store, we shifted our main focus to the point of
sale where we faced yet some additional challenges. Given the
unique characteristics of the category (compared to other FMCG
categories) - small products , shelved only on pegs and with
overall relatively small display space we found ourselves with
limited available room to install the ordinary POS marketing
communication tools so we needed to find alternative methods to get
noticed in store.
We couldn't advertise in the "right"
place, so we devised a strategy of advertising in exactly the
"wrong" place.
We used "point of sale" - but not
"point of toothbrush sale". Instead we implemented a strategy of
"anti-contextual" touchpoints in store - away from the toothbrush
aisle. We featured our "Did You Know?" provocative insights at the
point of sale of other categories in which the anti bacteria
concept is already established. This enabled us to talk to
prospects about the new Oral B brush in more contact points and in
environments where the competition does not usually communicate -
therefore receiving more "stand out" and attention. Our
insight-based anti-contextual messages wittily directed shoppers
back to the toothbrush aisle.
The creativity of the communication and activation:
In store prospects nationwide saw our
"Did You Know?" jumpers in "unlikely" places - the travel section
("…to avoid bacteria - pack your toothbrush in a vented
container…"), the toilet cleansers section ("… recommended distance
between the toilet and the sink prevents microparticles reaching
toothbrushes when flushing") the medicine section ("… change
toothbrush at the beginning and end of illness…"), etc., different
insights suited for the different sections of the store.
The same approach was carried out also
in the digital world - Online banners and search focused on "out of
oral care context" environments (travel sites and travel related
search words boasted the packing insight, medical sites and
medicine related search words highlighted the illness one, etc.)
all leading to the Oral B anti bacteria website.
Once the topic was established and the
need raised we went on to phase two of the launch topping it all
off with a TV copy which offered the full Oral B anti bac story
(benefit and Reason To Believe).
The results:
The Oral B brand saw a 10% increase in
sales one month after the campaign (vs. pre-campaign).
Three months after the launch, the
positive trend continues with Oral B sales growing by +18% (year on
year).
Most importantly, following this
campaign, Oral B gained market leadership from Colgate in the
toothbrush category, behind growth of the premium brush segment
which the anti bac variant belongs to.
This comes as a major achievement:
Colgate is an oral care mega brand, active in several
sub-categories, while Oral B is only active in the tootbrush
category and its ad investment is about half of that of
Colgate.
This revolutionary strategy and
execution not only enabled us to overcome the instore challenge of
limited communication space and the general low involvement of
consumers in the category but it also managed to educate consumers
about bacteria in Oral care, a topic which seemed irrelevant prior
to the campaign.
The provocative insights we revealed
helped us to also generate great PR coverage and even created
interest and demand from professionals to try the new brush. We
estimate the free PR to be worth circa 40% of the total
investment.