Did You Know?

When launching a new anti-bacterial toothbrush, Oral B recognized that Israeli consumers did not see bacteria issues as relevant to the toothbrush category. In addition, the brush category is a low involvement one where brand choices are made on impulse. The challenge was to communicate a message the audience didn’t want to hear about a category they didn’t really care about.

Following extensive research which included interviews with oral care professionals and focus groups, Oral B developed a set of relevant but provocative insights that were qualified as being able to raise the bacteria issue in the category. These provocative insights were all structured as "Did You Know?" trivia-like questions. The media focus was on point of sale – where people make their brand choices. However toothbrushes are small products shelved usually on pegs with an overall small display space. So Oral B decided to use what it described as “anti-contextual” point of sale – away from the toothbrush aisle but where the anti-bacterial concept is already established. So the “Did You Know?” materials were placed in the travel section (“to avoid bacteria, pack your toothbrush in a vented containers”), the toilet cleaning section (“the minimal recommended distance between the toilet bowl and the sink is 180 cm, to prevent bacterial micro-particles reaching your toothbrush when flushing”) and the medicine section ("change your toothbrush at the beginning and end of illness”). The same approach was carried out also in the digital world - Online banners and search focused on "out of oral care context" environments (travel sites and travel related search words featured the packing insight, medical sites and medicine related search words highlighted the illness one, etc.) all leading to the Oral B anti bacteria website. Once the topic was established, a supporting TV campaign was launched.

The Oral B brand saw a 10% increase in sales one month after the campaign (vs. pre-campaign). Three months after the launch, the positive trend continued with Oral B sales growing by +18% (year on year). Most importantly, following this campaign, Oral B gained market leadership from Colgate in the toothbrush category. The provocative insights also helped to generate PR coverage.