P/S: Brushing Is Playing

 

Campaign Summary

Toothpaste brand P/S wanted to improve kids' oral health and launch a new product line specifically catered to the oral care needs of children. It used a targeted mobile content strategy to convey the idea that teeth brushing can be a fun and playful activity.

Strategy

Objective and Context:

In Vietnam, the number of children with dental cavities is on the rise. According to the Vietnamese National Institute of Dental Surgery:

  • 80 percent of children between the ages of four and eight have tooth decay.
  • 91 percent of kids do not take proper care of their teeth.

The campaign objective was two-fold:

  1. Increase trials: By convincing consumers to trade up to the new, kid-focused product portfolio, P/S aimed to reach children who were currently using adult toothpaste.
  2. Educate kids about oral health care: An educational and entertaining approach would strengthen P/S’s equity.

Target Audience:

For generations, toothpaste brands communicated only to parents, who tend to use tried-and-true products or globally preferred brands due to their perceived value. It was important to re-educate the parents, so the P/S Kids product launch campaign targeted both parents (specifically affluent moms between the ages of 25 and 45) and five- to 12-year-old kids.

According to the 2018 TotallyAwesome Kids’ Digital Insights report:

  • 49 percent of kids pester their parents multiple times a week to buy them something.
  • 80 percent of kids between the ages of ages of five and 12 ask their parents to buy them something shared by influencers.

Both segments of P/S’s target audience are digitally and mobile-savvy:

  1. Moms: Video and social are key media touchpoints, with 66 percent using social networks and 27 percent watching online videos.
  2. Kids: 80 percent use a smartphone daily for at least for two hours, with time spent on these devices peaking during the weekend. In addition, 49 percent have bought something after seeing an online ad.

Creative Strategy:

For kids, brushing their teeth is a mundane task and takes away from their play time, so P/S needed to make it fun.

  1. Understand media consumption behavior: Because parents are the gatekeepers for the content their children consume, dual viewership on mobile is strong, and parents are actively engaged with their children's media consumption on their smartphones:
    • 80 percent of parents participate in their children's smartphone activities, and the participation is even higher for younger kids.
    • Nearly 80 percent of parents watch videos online with their kids.
    • Nearly 70 percent of kids play online games with their parents.
  2. Understand the consumer mindset: Every child has a unique creative and customized view of the world around him/her, which made it important to effectively communicate through a range of customized messaging and mobile engagement activities to keep them hooked.
  3. Identify the right partner: P/S partnered with PopJam, the leading social content and mobile app for kids under the age of 13. The app's goal is to help kids express, create, imagine, and share their thoughts with each other in a safe environment. With 948,000 registered users, 18 million followers, five million creations, and 22.8 million likes in Vietnam, all within COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) compliance, PopJam was an ideal partner.

The customized media plan targeted moms through the content they watched for themselves on their devices, and also reached kids on their own platforms or when they used their parents’ devices. The campaign ran during summer vacation to best reach moms and kids during peak mobile engagement.

Execution

Overall Campaign Execution:

PopJam's platform allowed P/S to build its own fan base and community to effectively drive the core brand attributes. It educated kids on good brushing habits using cartoon characters such as Su Tu Rang To ("Big Teeth Lion") to increase brand love and show that brushing teeth can be fun.

Mobile Execution:

P/S collaborated with “kidfluencers” Ca Chua Do and Princess Banh Bao for a cross-promotional effort using their individual YouTube and PopJam channels to create buzz. Popular trends such as slime-making helped heighten interest among kids to get them to participate in the P/S and PopJam challenges.

For two months, kids were both entertained and educated with various weekly content:

  • 23 in-feed posts
  • Seven challenges
  • Two quizzes/polls
  • P/S character stickers for drawings and creations
  • 21 P/S branded-videos featuring “brush with me” challenges

P/S used branded assets and customized them to match PopJam’s kid friendly environment. It also created bedtime notification alerts that were triggered every night at 9:00 p.m. as a reminder that nighttime brushing should begin. These alerts strengthened brand recall and built good habits. The highly diverse content connected with kids and kept them engaged and curious about the importance of oral hygiene.

Results (including context, evaluation, and market impact)

Campaign results:

  • 2.6 million kids were engaged, which was 10 times the target goal.
  • 5.5 million kidfluencer videos were viewed.
  • The P/S PopJam channel earned nearly 170,000 followers, which exceeded benchmarks by 70 percent.
  • P/S saw 102,000 likes, 80,000 comments, 224,000 video views, and 184,000 interactions for its branded educational content.
  • 89 percent of P/S and PopJam fans took part in the P/S Toothpaste Knowledge Test.
  • 92 percent of P/S fans liked or loved the Su Tu Rang To cartoon.

Brand results:

  • In eight weeks, the P/S Kids product contribution to the total P/S brand grew by 57 percent.
  • The P/S Advanced Kids line now represents 45 percent of the P/S Kids portfolio.
  • The P/S Kids product contribution to the total toothpaste category experienced its highest growth in five years.
  • Soft metrics such as “appealing,” “recommended, and “is liked by all the members of the family” all grew between 3 and 4 percent.

Categories: Product/Services Launch | Industries: Health & Beauty | Objectives: Product/Services Launch | Awards: X Silver Winner