The Campaign

Any parent will tell you that ‘Brush time’ is tough. (If you’ve ever had to wrestle a three-year-old, who stubbornly refuses to brush their teeth you’ll completely understand!) Parents are looking for ways to make it easier and kids are looking for ways to make them forget they are doing it! This was the opportunity for Macleans. Turn ‘brush- time’ from a moment of parent child CONFLICT, to a moment of family CONNECTION. To achieve this, we had to find a credible partner who would appeal to both parents and kids. The Wiggles are childhood icons in Australia. They have sold 30 million albums and DVDs across 26 years. Their unique brand of ‘edutainment’ has catapulted them to global stardom. In a unique partnership we created a new oral health dance craze…. “WIGGLE WHILE YOU BRUSH” A ‘brush-time’ song and dance designed to be both infectious and fun for everyone.

Creative Execution

We launched our campaign at Australia’s biggest live family event - Carols in the Domain. Attended by 80,000 people and reaching +10% of the population on TV. Via a Facebook competition we gave one lucky family the chance to dance LIVE on stage with The Wiggles. We programmatically amplified our music video across mornings and early evenings, targeting parents at ‘brush-times’. While this activity created cut-through in the minds of parents, we knew we had to cut through in store to reverse sales declines. We created branded point-of-sale assets and bespoke in-store displays, which when pressed played excerpts from the song. In collaboration with Australia’s major retail partners, we created promotions giving families the chance to meet their heroes. At ‘The Wiggles’ Big Show arena tour we created an interactive family experience. Allowing families to create their own personalised version of ‘Wiggle While You Brush’ video to share on social.

Our results have surpassed all expectations: We REVERSED the -18.5% decline of children’s toothpaste in 2016. Instead the brand grew by a hugely impressive +41% In addition, our share of category increased by +40% The ‘WIGGLE WHILE YOU BRUSH’ video reached nearly 1 million (985,000) of the target audience (parents of young children 0-5) within the first 6 weeks of launch. To date nearly 80% of all Aussie parents have watched the Macleans and The Wiggles video and ‘WIGGLED’ while they brushed with their children. *This was the only activity running across the period. All results are directly attributable to this campaign

Our simple yet human insight, resulted in a media-centric partnership that created access to the right touchpoints to meet our business challenge. Through understanding the ‘brush-time’ moment and the tension that it created, we were able to identify a clear opportunity for the brand that captured the hearts and minds of both kids and parents across Australia. Our strategic approach was focused on using paid channels to amplify our core assets and create fame across the relevant family moments. Clever use of influencer/social channels created involvement and rewarded participation, while integration with in-store channels converted preference into sales.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

To make this successful we needed to employ a strategy that created both FAME and INVOLVEMENT. We needed to give families opportunities to dance along with Macleans but at the same time facilitate purchase. The key to doing this was creating a key asset that could be replicated and experienced in different channels. We created a colourful and educational music video - ‘WIGGLE WHILE YOU BRUSH’ Written/produced by The Wiggles, the music video challenged kids to brush their teeth “for as long as the song goes” (conveniently, the 2-minutes recommended by Australian dentists). It also featured ‘Captain Macleans’, the brand's ambassador. This was the FIRST time in their 26-year history The Wiggles had allowed another brand’s character to appear with them, effectively making Captain Macleans the 5th Wiggle. This asset could be amplified via paid media, replicated in experiential and even used in-store to create cut-through and drive sales.