Case study
Strategic Creative Solution
Unilever
Context
P/S wants to launch a brand new toothbrush on the market in a context where, average consumers replace their toothbrush approximately once a year.
Challenge
One of the consumer’s core insight we get is, to most of people a toothbrush is just an instrument that nobody really cares about. There’s nothing exciting about it, it’s a boring stuff. Plus, the client is very honest: “It’s a toothbrush signed by Unilever, but there’s nothing special”. So in these circumstances, how to trigger consumer’s motivation & awaken the need to change their toothbrush? The business objective is to increase the P/S toothbrush sales.
Strategic
Creative Solution
The strategy is to uphold the toothbrush as an essential part of Oral Care, leaving people no doubt that their toothbrush plays as an important part as their toothpaste in adopting good brushing habits.
Idea (the thinking behind)
According to you, what is the obvious main function of a toothbrush?
You may answer “the function (or the reason to be) of a toothbrush is to clean the teeth”.
Yes, It’s true. But it’s not what I think.
In order to answer that question, there’s a time factor to take into account.
Up until a point, after 6 months (actually it’s 3 months), if consumers don’t change their toothbrush, it stops its function as a cleaner.
The toothbrush gets older from daily use, what was once your way of keeping a healthy smile, can soon become an enemy, it is not cleaning effectively anymore and doing more harm than good by passing bacteria around your mouth (instead of removing it).
For really caring about the oral hygiene, a toothbrush must be changed within 3 months. The strategic creative solution to the initial challenge is, to help the audience to realize that time factor. So the audience has to buy a new toothbrush. It increases toothbrush sales, and it’s the challenge is all about.
the Untold Story behind the job
Genesis (where the idea comes from)
There’s an analogy between a toothbrush and a friend.
As a human being, we are social creatures. We have family, friends and colleagues. We do need that tribe, that community, what ever we call it. But sometimes life goes wrong, we get in trouble, we have conflicts. I have noticed, we usually have conflicts not with a stranger coming out of the blue. We usually have conflicts or the worst, are betrayed by the people we are close with. So your best friend of today, may become your worst enemy of tomorrow.
Literally, your best friend may turn his back on you (it’s not only a metaphor). That’s the thinking behind the idea. Most of us probably experienced and know that feeling. So we use that in order to connect to the audience and raise the awareness. So like friendship (a friend), mouth’s best friend (a toothbrush) could become it’s worst enemy.
phase 1
Awareness
We launch the campaign with a disruptive message that provokes consumers to think about their current toothbrush and if it’s making their mouth more harm than good.
Display Banners
Banners will help to push and dramatize the same functional message and start to show “how a simple 180º check of your toothbrush” can let you know whether you need to change it or not.
Using an animated flick of a calendar’s month, helps to dramatize the need for change the toothbrush after 6 months for a healthier smile.
phase 2
Engagement
We spread the message further and educate consumers on how to identify a good or bad toothbrush, encouraging them to replace their toothbrush for better oral hygiene.
Social Engagement
Through social media, we start the conversation by asking consumers if they know whether their toothbrush is “a friend or an enemy”.
We educate consumers on the simple trick to know if it’s time to change their toothbrush. By also leveraging KOLs we get them to check their toothbrushes too and see if they need to change them or not, and spread the message.
phase 3
Purchasing
We target the shoppers in-store with POS messaging in order to increase the purchase by reminding the consumers of our simple and straightforward functional message.
Activation
Inside shopping malls or high traffic areas, there’s a huge area for P/S. Within this area, consumers learn more about how a toothbrush - is considered their mouth’s best friend, can turn into it’s worst enemy.
Interactive LED screens where consumers can swipe and explore, show the signs when it’s time to change their toothbrush and why.
Lesson learned
from that experience
Sometimes, ideas come from our own life experience. It’s all about to trust our guts and keep going (even you don’t know where you gonna to yet). So how to use a personal experience to achieve the campaign objective? By using the concept of transposition. And actually, I used the concept of transposition (coming from my music lessons). So it allows to find connection between unrelated topics.
Credits
Agency: Mullen Lowe
Creative Director:
Adrian McNamara
Art Director: Abi
Graphic Designers: Duc & Khoa
Copywriter: Minh
Creative (freelancer): mynkao
P/S fan page:
facebook.com/baovenucuoivn
