1. Background Cough is a very common condition, with 81% of the population suffering 1, purchasing >30 million products and spending 100m 2 annually. The shop landscape is dominated by 2 established brands Benylin and Covonia who ve been launching products in the cough market for new cough indications (dry, chesty, mucus, tickly, catarrh ). This has resulted in consumer confusion as 1 in 3 people don t even know what type of cough they have 3. Bronchostop Cough Syrup and Cough Pastilles launched in September 2014 and are a true innovation in the cough category as they meet a key consumer need they take the hassle out of having a cough. Bronchostop is Omega Pharma s first treatment to relieve any type of cough: dry, chesty, mucus, tickly, catarrh. For the consumer this means it no longer matters what type of cough they have, or how confusing the rest of the category is, Bronchostop can be used to relieve any type of cough. 2. Objectives of the Marketing Campaign The objective from launch was to turn a category that have been flat for 15 years back into growth, by driving awareness with consumers and recommendation with pharmacy teams, and ultimately achieving a 5% share by the end of 2015 a challenging target given that Buttercup (also from Omega Pharma) has a 4.1% share after being on the market for over 30 years: 1 Mintel Cold, flu and allergy report April 2014 2 IRI SIG unit sales Winer (DecMar) 3 Mortar study 08/15 36% of 2,000 people
1. CONSUMER: AWARENESS 1. TV campaign In order to build mass awareness in the shortest possible time, 90% of the media investment went behind TV. In the 2014/15 season 76% of all adults saw the advert at least once, with a bias towards prime time shows, including Made in Chelsea, XFactor & Homeland. A new 30 TV copy was created focussing on the unique benefits of Bronchostop and tackling the category problems head on by asking the consumer Ever wondered why you have so many cough products? and Do you even know what type of cough you have?. TV launched on 13th October 2014, ran through to February 2015, started again in October 2015 and will be on air every day until February 2016. 2. In store theatre Consumers who have a cough don t have time to browse and they are confused by the range of products on offer 4, so the Bronchostop products needed to stand out on shelf with clear USP communication. The trade objectives and pointofsale were all developed using the claim used on TV, which made it easy for shoppers to recall: Source: Boots Victoria station Source: Boots Liverpool street Source: Tesco 2. PHARMACY TEAMS: RECOMMENDATION 1. Trade advertising A big part of the marketing plan was to make pharmacy teams aware and educated about this unique cough product. Cough is not a category that pharmacy teams are necessarily highly engaged with, so for Bronchostop we collaborated with a celebrity to create disruption. As Bronchostop takes the hassle out of cough, David Hasselhoff was signed to create a big buzz around the brand during the launch, exclusively for professionals. A bespoke trade video, press and competition were developed and ran through to February 2015, as well as digital display advertising on trade websites: 4 Qual research conducted with Happen Research agency, Aug 2014
2. Training Programme Throughout 2015, the focus has been on educating the pharmacy teams on the unique formula and benefits of Bronchostop. A 360 training platform was developed, offering category and brand training in 3 practical ways facetoface, online or paper based.
3. Results of the Marketing Campaign Bronchostop has exceeded all expectations, currently tracking to a 9.5% share in the last 52w/e period: Bronchostop has also significantly overdelivered within pharmacy with an 11.4% share, helping drive 20% category growth in the channel (+2.3ppt vs. total market): CONSUMER: AWARENESS At launch, after just two weeks of the TV campaign, a massive 380% sales uplift was achieved across the market. The TVC remained very responsive for the duration of the 2014/15 campaign:
And at the start of the 2015/16 season, sales in the first two weeks of the TV campaign have already exceeded the first two weeks of TV from the 2014/15 season, so the creative continues to work hard: PHARMACY TEAMS: RECOMMENDATION Both the trade advertising and the training programme have been effective for driving distribution and recommendation from pharmacy teams: >17,000 received paperbased training >3,900 completed the training module >1,800 received face to face training The Bronchostop competition, run across Pharmacy Magazine, TM, C&D and P3, delivered a 3.8% conversion rate which is almost double the normal response of 2.1%