Business Challenge
Although Dr. Scholl’s had identified the Hispanic market as a key growth market, the Schering-Plough brand needed insights on how to introduce the brand to Hispanic consumers. There were some significant barriers:
- Hispanic consumers had very low involvement in the footcare category, and very low awareness of the Dr. Scholl’s brand
- Dr. Scholl’s had limited product distribution in retailers with high Hispanic penetration
- Hispanic consumers had a history of trying to solve foot health-care problems on their own
Insights
Our consumer insights team discovered that Hispanics spend a lot more time on their feet than the General Market population, and as a result, are 33% more likely to suffer from foot ailments.
Once we established that there was a big opportunity here, the question remained: How could we connect with Hispanic consumers in a way that would be strategically sound for the brand but relevant to the consumer?
Strategy
As the No. 1 leisure activity among Hispanics, and squarely focused on feet, soccer was identified as a strategically sound, highly relevant platform. aim created the “Your Feet are Worth a Million” campaign, a multipronged effort to drive sales among Hispanic consumers by teaching them that taking good care of their feet was important. We signed world-renowned Mexican soccer players Hugo Sánchez and Luis Hernández as celebrity brand ambassadors and deployed a grassroots, experiential mobile marketing foot-care tour that visited thousands of retail stores as well as the most important Hispanic festivals throughout the U.S.
The tour educated consumers about foot health through an interactive experience and allowed them to enter for a chance to win $1 million dollars. The brand forged alliances with key retailers including Walmart, Walgreens, CVS and Kroger, as well as Hispanic independents, who supported the program with media, promotional displays and other in-store activity. And Spanish language network TV and radio ads provided air support, generating buzz and awareness for our efforts on the ground.
Bragging Rights
The program generated a 100% return on investment for the Dr. Scholl’s, establishing 2,500 new points of distribution and spiking sales by 83%. Seven hundred stores held educational events, engaging more than 240,000 consumers.
