Business Challenge
Tylenol needed a creative way to launch its new Cool Caplets pain relief product. But the launch was set for summer — not the primary selling season for pain medication. In addition, any event marketing effort would have to respect numerous regulations governing the safe management, handling and distribution of an OTC medication.
Insight
aim’s consumer research revealed an untapped insight: Although summer is not the primary selling season for pain relievers, heat-related headaches are a major problem during summer months. And because everyone looks for ways to cool off in the summer, there was a natural intersection between consumer behavior and the product’s core attribute, which was that it produced an instant cooling sensation.
Strategy
Our strategy centered on bringing “cool” to the country’s worst headache sufferers during the heat of summer. We identified markets with high concentrations of headache sufferers — cities where consumption of pain relief products was at least 37.5% higher than the average market.
We then identified places and events where consumers were most likely to suffer from headaches and deployed teams of Tylenol Cool Caplets Snow Bunny brand ambassadors to introduce the product.
Bragging Rights
Our activities generated more than 32 million earned media impressions, including an article in The New York Times, a comment by Jay Leno on The Tonight Show and mentions by radio DJs in local markets. We distributed 832,750 product samples and helped exceed the launch distribution goal by 11%.
