Oral care brand Colgate boosted sales of its new Total toothpaste by 7.1% in the UK after running a mobile-first video campaign across Facebook and Instagram.
Case study summary
The challenge
First marketed in 1873, Colgate is the world’s most popular toothpaste brand. It is now part of the Colgate-Palmolive group, whose products are used, trusted and loved every day by millions of people around the world. From oral care to personal care, from home care to pet nutrition, Colgate-Palmolive’s goal is to make products that make the world smile.
To launch the new formulation of Colgate Total toothpaste, Colgate planned a large brand campaign across multiple media channels. The aims of the campaign were to communicate the new product launch, promote the idea of a healthy mouth and drive sales of the new Colgate Total range.
The solution
Colgate identified a high level of interest in health and wellness across Facebook and Instagram—particularly around yoga, physical fitness and weight training. This made them the perfect environment to raise the importance of “whole mouth health” in the context of overall health, and promote Colgate Total toothpaste as the ideal solution for this.
Colgate’s agency RedFuse worked with Facebook Creative Shop to create multiple video assets designed for Facebook and Instagram feed and Stories. The ad creative played on the idea of getting “mouth fit”, using a split-screen format to combine the notion of dental hygiene with health and wellness activities such as yoga, daily training and skipping.
The creative assets followed Facebook’s best practice guidelines for mobile–using clear branding and messaging within the first few seconds, framed for mobile and designed for sound-off viewing.
Broad targeting was used to reach all potential buyers of Colgate Total (male and female, aged 18 and older), while Facebook’s people-based targeting made it possible to target the ads to people interested in health and wellness topics to drive relevancy.
The results
An offline sales lift study was commissioned in partnership with data science analysts dunnhumby to understand the effect of the campaign on in-store purchases. The study analysed sales of Colgate Total products, as well as the halo effect on the broader Colgate portfolio.
Colgate’s well-planned campaign on Facebook and Instagram helped launch a new version of Colgate Total, and established oral health as a part of an effective daily fitness routine. Between July 3–30, 2019, the campaign achieved:
7.1% lift in sales for Colgate Total varieties featured
1.8X return on ad spend for all Colgate products
39% of sales lift driven by new buyers
12 million people reached
1.3% lift in sales for other Colgate products
Rob Marcus, Director Digital & eCommerce Marketing, Colgate-Palmolive Europe, said: “This campaign was a critical component of our biggest relaunch of the decade. We were most excited about three aspects: 1) strong partnership to co-create the content; 2) use of interest-based targeting for more relevant creative; 3) overall performance with exceptional ad recall, sales lift and return on ad spend. Facebook is a powerful tool to drive brand growth."
