The Campaign

The TV regulatory system Colgate faces in China is one of the strictest in the world. In 2011 and 2012, the state administration of radio, film and television (SARFT) issued guidelines limiting the number of reality programs on air. From 1st January 2012, guidelines were tightened further with only 9 entertainment programs allowed between 19:30-22:00 on all PSTV channels. This is on top of two policies affecting the amount of commercial time allowed. Since January 2010, SARFT policy #61 has limited the length of commercial time to 12 minutes per hour, and only 9 minutes during primetime. Since January 2012, SARFT policy #66 doesn't allow any advertising during drama commercial breaks. All of these restrictions have made TV planning tough, with high TV inflation and limited ad inventory. TV inflation is estimated at 15-25% across stations for 2012. But it’s not all doom and gloom. With restrictions on TV programming, and online penetration of 513m (38%), Chinese consumers are increasingly watching content online. In fact Colgate’s audience watch an average of 10 hours of online video, compared to 18 hours of broadcast TV, every week. Hence we spotted digital content as a golden opportunity for Colgate.

Results

360 is Colgate’s biggest brand in China (known as Total elsewhere). Its patented ingredient makes it the best at beating mouth bacteria. But that’s not very sexy, is it? After 4 years of TV led advertising, the 360 message-'12 hour antibacterial protection' was not being delivered. Qualitative research showed the message was too complex to explain in a 30 second TVC alone. As a result, market share was flat. We were challenged to communicate the 360 message in a new and meaningful way. We needed to engage consumers and drive market share. Our target audience of 25-45 year olds are heavy viewers of reality shows, particularly starring celebrities. They increasingly watch content online: 10+ hours every week. From these insights, we developed a digital content led strategy. The 360 message would be weaved into a reality game show, driving engagement using the power of celebrity and online participation. Our idea was to run a nation-wide search to find China’s Healthiest Mouth. Ariel Lin, a Taiwanese singer/actress was selected as our host, thanks to her healthy image and 3m+ online followers. The winner would have the unique chance to sing karaoke with Ariel. The campaign was broken into 3 phases: 1) Recruitment 2) Voting 3) Webisodes We invited people to enter online. A series of auditions led to 32 people being put to the online vote. The most popular 16 became the stars of our 15 episode reality show. They competed in a range of grueling yet entertaining tasks, challenging their physical, mental and oral health. Next, each contestant underwent a dentists’ check up with Ariel undercover as the dental assistant. Finally a winner was announced for the grand prize. Toothpaste can be fun, and exciting, and even a bit sexy.

Digital content sat at the heart of our integrated communications plan from May-July 2012. Offline, TV and print advertising ran with a call to action to view content online. In retail, we ran POS and promotional packs. We worked with Sina, China’s largest portal, to host the content exclusively on Sina Weibo (equivalent of Twitter). Online we ran 1billion+ impressions of Sina banner ads, including mobile and tablet ads. We invited 50 bloggers and 20 forums to spread the word. Our celebrity host raved about the show on her Weibo 8 times, reaching 3.6m followers every time.

Our campaign was an online sensation, over delivering against our KPIs every step of the way (KPIs were set using previous campaign and industry benchmarks). We created engagement in a notoriously low interest category. Building understanding of the 360 message: • 70% of interviewees spontaneously said that 360 kills bacteria in the mouth (versus 35% previously). Driving brand engagement: • 2.6m unique visitors throughout the campaign (over delivered by 30%). • 1.3m votes (over delivered by 60%). • 19.3m video views (over delivered by 27%). • 120,000+ conversations generated about oral health talent on Weibo (everyday toothpaste can be sexy). • 60,000+ shares and comments. Most importantly we increased share of market significantly, where it had been flat: • 360 China net sales increased by 56% from April-May 2012 (indicating uplift in 1st month of campaign, June/July data not yet available unfortunately). • 360 China SOM increased by 12% from April-May 2012. And we made everyday toothpaste sexier than it ever was before.