2021 Winner
2021 Winners
Ricola
Everyday Voice
Since 1930, Ricola’s blend of natural herbs has soothed coughs and sore throats during flu season. But despite 2021 being a tough year, Ricola was still outspent by the category leader Halls 3:1 during the Cough & Cold (C&C) season. Ricola needed to find a white space, where it didn’t have to compete at a spend level during the C&C season but instead, could develop a new usage occasion. Ricola needed to find it’s voice during the ‘off-season’ if it was going to increase penetration and ultimately, sales.
Ricola faced an uphill battle in driving consumer behavior change. Through ethnography research, they discovered consumers were only reaching for Ricola in the early stages of a cough or cold. To shift Ricola’s efficacy message from cough and sore throat relief, Ricola would need to disrupt the seasonal nature of its purchase cycle.
Through social listening, they learned people turned to products like gum or water to soothe tired throats or strained voices. If FUSE Create could expand Ricola’s efficacy message to include throat irritations outside coughs and sore throats, that could be the white space.
Research clearly showed that people were typically reaching for water, gum and/or other confectionery products to soothe irritated throats from overuse, dry mouth, and/or allergies, irritations not caused by coughs or colds. ‘Cough drop’ was low on the consideration list. What they needed to do was get on the list.
They re-positioned Ricola to be about ‘voice care’. And not as a ‘cough drop’, but as a drop for any time your voice or throat needs relief, not just when you have a cough or sore throat. This way, Ricola can have a permissible presence outside the C&C season. It stays relevant during the spring, summer, and fall months, a time previously considered the ‘off season’.
To strengthen the ‘voice care’ positioning, they specifically developed a proactive messaging strategy. In the C&C season, people typically purchase Ricola after they’ve developed a cough or sore throat (i.e. eactive). To further drive the behaviour change Ricola was looking for, they strategically developed a proactive message that would be the tagline of the campaign; It’s good to have Ricola at the ready.
With the strategic thinking in place, they set out to communicate their “It’s good to have Ricola at the ready” message. They needed to drive home the new ‘voice care’ message and usage occasions, and the best way to do that was to simply show it. But show in a memorable, break though, relevant, and thumb-stopping way.
They focused the creative on the mouth and throat because well, that’s what Ricola soothes and relieves. Using an outward, first-person view from inside the throat (right behind the uvula), the creative illustrated exactly when people would need a Ricola to help soothe their voice. Screaming, yelling, cheering, talking, singing, you name it, they showed it, in video format through the mouth of the user. Each moment was brought to life in lively and colourful depictions of usage occasions users could relate to and picture themselves directly in, and at the precise moment where their voice might get sore, irritated, or dry.
To help drive the behavior change, the media strategy extended beyond core social channels to include TikTok to reach an unduplicated audience from Facebook and Instagram. The videos launched with interest-based targeting and audiences based on the moments and usage occasions demonstrated in the creative.
The 360 campaign ran for four weeks in the Greater Toronto Area earning 34.6M impressions. They successfully shifted usage perception resulting in a 2700% increase in unit sales growth compared to the four-week period prior (-9% vs +18%), +3.6pts lift in Message Association: When asked if people would consider Ricola for tired voice relief (171% above NA CPG norms), +3.1pts lift in Top-of-Mind Awareness: When asked which brands came to mind when thinking of tired voice relief (210% above NA CPG norms), +17.6%: Ricola mentions increased +17.6% compared to a similar ‘tired voice relief’ question in 2020 and 36%: More than 1/3 of respondents “Agreed” Ricola could be used for tired voice relief. Unit sales growth during the campaign outpaced the rest of Ontario by 500% (+18% vs +3%), Market Share growth outpaced the rest by 142% (+2.9pt vs +1.2pt), all while other competitors experienced minimal or negative growth.
As a result of this success, the US, Germany, and UK have picked up the work, and are bringing this powerful campaign to their markets.
Ricola faced an uphill battle in driving consumer behavior change. Through ethnography research, they discovered consumers were only reaching for Ricola in the early stages of a cough or cold. To shift Ricola’s efficacy message from cough and sore throat relief, Ricola would need to disrupt the seasonal nature of its purchase cycle.
Through social listening, they learned people turned to products like gum or water to soothe tired throats or strained voices. If FUSE Create could expand Ricola’s efficacy message to include throat irritations outside coughs and sore throats, that could be the white space.
Research clearly showed that people were typically reaching for water, gum and/or other confectionery products to soothe irritated throats from overuse, dry mouth, and/or allergies, irritations not caused by coughs or colds. ‘Cough drop’ was low on the consideration list. What they needed to do was get on the list.
They re-positioned Ricola to be about ‘voice care’. And not as a ‘cough drop’, but as a drop for any time your voice or throat needs relief, not just when you have a cough or sore throat. This way, Ricola can have a permissible presence outside the C&C season. It stays relevant during the spring, summer, and fall months, a time previously considered the ‘off season’.
To strengthen the ‘voice care’ positioning, they specifically developed a proactive messaging strategy. In the C&C season, people typically purchase Ricola after they’ve developed a cough or sore throat (i.e. eactive). To further drive the behaviour change Ricola was looking for, they strategically developed a proactive message that would be the tagline of the campaign; It’s good to have Ricola at the ready.
With the strategic thinking in place, they set out to communicate their “It’s good to have Ricola at the ready” message. They needed to drive home the new ‘voice care’ message and usage occasions, and the best way to do that was to simply show it. But show in a memorable, break though, relevant, and thumb-stopping way.
They focused the creative on the mouth and throat because well, that’s what Ricola soothes and relieves. Using an outward, first-person view from inside the throat (right behind the uvula), the creative illustrated exactly when people would need a Ricola to help soothe their voice. Screaming, yelling, cheering, talking, singing, you name it, they showed it, in video format through the mouth of the user. Each moment was brought to life in lively and colourful depictions of usage occasions users could relate to and picture themselves directly in, and at the precise moment where their voice might get sore, irritated, or dry.
To help drive the behavior change, the media strategy extended beyond core social channels to include TikTok to reach an unduplicated audience from Facebook and Instagram. The videos launched with interest-based targeting and audiences based on the moments and usage occasions demonstrated in the creative.
The 360 campaign ran for four weeks in the Greater Toronto Area earning 34.6M impressions. They successfully shifted usage perception resulting in a 2700% increase in unit sales growth compared to the four-week period prior (-9% vs +18%), +3.6pts lift in Message Association: When asked if people would consider Ricola for tired voice relief (171% above NA CPG norms), +3.1pts lift in Top-of-Mind Awareness: When asked which brands came to mind when thinking of tired voice relief (210% above NA CPG norms), +17.6%: Ricola mentions increased +17.6% compared to a similar ‘tired voice relief’ question in 2020 and 36%: More than 1/3 of respondents “Agreed” Ricola could be used for tired voice relief. Unit sales growth during the campaign outpaced the rest of Ontario by 500% (+18% vs +3%), Market Share growth outpaced the rest by 142% (+2.9pt vs +1.2pt), all while other competitors experienced minimal or negative growth.
As a result of this success, the US, Germany, and UK have picked up the work, and are bringing this powerful campaign to their markets.