STRATEGIC CHALLENGE
HOW DO YOU RESTORE “COOL” AND REBUILD CONSUMER LOYALTY FOR THE BIGGEST BRAND IN AN EXCEEDINGLY PROLIFERATED CATEGORY?
Orbit was losing its “cool” and its most loyal users
Since the brand launched in 2001, Orbit was always perceived as the cool gum brand, because it was new and unlike anything consumers had seen before. But by 2008, newer, more innovative and attractive gum brands were stealing share of “cool brand to be seen with” perceptions of Orbit among our core young adult target audience, with an overall result of Orbit feeling a bit stale and too familiar.
Although still the largest gum brand in the category, Orbit was witnessing a sizeable drop-off in its most loyal users. Regaining this loyalty was vital to the continued success for the brand. Furthermore, the proliferation of new gum items was making loyalty a relative term: Gum chewers claim to use about 3 different gum items every week.
An upsized pack would help retain some loyalty, but we had to bring the product to life in a ground-breaking way to fully address the brand problem
To address the slide in brand loyalty, Wrigley launched an upsized pack. Orbit Big Pak, a 35-piece pack (vs. the 14-piece standard pack), was designed to take loyal consumer out of the marketplace for a longer period of time with each purchase, thereby reducing the odds that they make a competitive choice.
Because the upsize pack proposition was not new to the category, we could not rely on the news itself to break through. Instead, we needed an innovative, unexpected approach that would grab the attention of our core young adult target audience and be emotionally relevant. Additionally, it was still critical that Orbit reinforce ownership of its long-standing “clean mouth” benefit.
So, the challenge was to drive awareness of new Orbit Big Pak through a never-been-done-before approach that would restore Orbit's perceptions as cool and innovative and re-connect with our core young adult Orbit users.
OBJECTIVES
1. Strengthen brand loyalty for Orbit via upsized pack
2. Significantly improve Orbit brand perceptions on key image and innovation attribute measures, among those who saw the Orbit Big Pak campaign and identified it with Big Pak
3.Generate significant breakthrough of Orbit Big Pak campaign
THE BIG IDEA
Introduce an original rap artist named Big Pak, whose once “Dirty Mouth™” has now been cleaned up by Orbit Big Pak gum.
Inspired by established Orbit slang and passionate topics in rap music
Through previous marketing communications, the Orbit distinct, clean-mouth vocabulary, which we internally labeled “mickey fickey slang,” had gained significant traction within consumer culture. Teens and young adults adopted phrases from our commercials, such as “you lint licker” and “what the French toast,” as part of their everyday dialogue. We also recognized that explicit lyrics in rap music are always a heated cultural topic. So, Orbit saw the opportunity to leverage “mickey fickey slang” as the foundation to develop a rap artist who had a one-of-a-kind lyrical style, impeccable fashion sense, and a light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek manner.
Centered the idea around the effect Orbit Big Pak had on shaping the life of the rap artist Big Pak
We constructed a storyline that revealed Big Pak was once the dirtiest mouth rapper in the U.K. but had since been cleaned up by the new, 35-piece Orbit Big Pak. Naturally, his lyrics referenced his “Dirty Mouth” history and the role Orbit Big Pak played in cleaning him up, as illustrated below in sample lyrics from his debut track, “Droppin 35”:
I was the dirtiest mouth in London City
My mouth was so pillow fluffin' un-pretty
Now I'm back in the streets of the Queen
And my mother hubbard mouth is clean
I'm dropping 35
Son of a biscuit
I'm dropping 35
What the H-E double hockey sticks?
I'm dropping 35
Holey flannel shirt!
35 pieces, it cut out the dirt
BRINGING THE IDEA TO LIFE
Modeled our in-market campaign approach after the music industry
Contrary to typical new product launches, we treated the roll-out of our campaign similar to how the music industry introduces a new artist. This method was designed as a way for us to blur the lines between marketing commerce and consumer culture. Additionally, every aspect of the campaign was treated with authenticity but with a knowing wink, because we knew that our pop culture savvy consumer would only appreciate the cleverness of this approach if we did not take ourselves too seriously.
Reinforced our authentic approach by casting a credible rap talent from the U.K.
For genuine credibility, we identified a talented, aspiring rap artist from the U.K. and cast him as Big Pak. Then, as any rap artist would, we crafted a look and persona for Big Pak, complete with his uniquely British wardrobe, fashion accessories, and personal logo.
Developed a phased communications involvement strategy that helped bring Big Pak to life across many consumer touch points and media channel platforms
Phase I set out to drive awareness of the Orbit Big Pak product and Big Pak the artist:
Music Video Style TV Spot – TV was central to the plan, allowing us to introduce Big Pak product and artist to a mass audience with the look and feel of a music video.
Photo Editorial Style Print Ad – Our print ad was reminiscent of feature photo editorials in consumer magazines, which further solidified the product message and the “introduction” of the rap artist Big Pak.
Music Celebrity Style Public Relations – Public relations continued to boost Big Pak's presence in consumer culture by showing images of Big Pak, on set during the filming of his new music video, in entertainment media outlets.
Product & Lyric Focused Digital – Digital advertising not only promoted the 35-piece Orbit Big Pak, but it also entertained viewers with a rich media experience that taught consumers some of Big Pak's favorite “mickey fickey slang” lyrics & phrases. This interactive slang experience was also the basis for the Orbit Big Pak iPhone App that allowed consumers to type in a “dirty” word and Big Pak would supply a cleaned-up, “mickey fickey slang” word in return.
Phase II broadened consumer engagement with the artist Big Pak, and the Orbit Big Pak product took on a more sponsorship role:
World Premiere Music Video on MTV – We produced a full-length music video for Big Pak that premiered during a primetime commercial pod on MTV, and was then released online via a dedicated MTV.com video page. To promote appointment viewership of the music video premiere, MTV filmed, produced and aired multiple behind-the-scenes, branded content vignettes in their “making the video” style.
Q&A Style Advertorials – In pop culture magazines, we leveraged relationships with magazine partners to secure print advertorials. Each advertorial was designed to look like a real Q&A interview with Big Pak, and he used the opportunity to talk about how he was cleaned up by Orbit Big Pak.
Music Relevant Social Media – MySpace was selected as the digital hub for Big Pak, due to its strong connection with music culture and musicians. Using separate product and artist pages, we featured all of Big Pak's video content, including the full-length music video, TV commercials, additional music tracks, and multiple other videos that provided a deeper look into the life of Big Pak.
Award Presenter at 2009 MTV Movie Awards – For the campaign finale, we used our sponsorship of the 2009 MTV Movie Awards to confirm Big Pak as a legitimate celebrity music artist. Two weeks before the event, we ran a co-branded, tune-in TV spot that built excitement and awareness about Big Pak's upcoming appearance at the MTV Movie Awards. For the branded content portion of the sponsorship, we worked with MTV to execute something the network had never done before: the rap artist Big Pak appeared live, on stage at the MTV Movie Awards and initiated a rap battle with celebrity Hayden Panettiere in their presentation of the “WTF Award” nominees and winner. This appearance also resulted in coverage of Big Pak in celebrity culture and entertainment media.
Additional Marketing Components:
Direct Mail Couponing – Key retailers Walmart & Kroger were tapped to help build awareness and encourage purchase of Orbit Big Pak, especially among current Orbit users. For Walmart, a one-time, two-sided insert was distributed alongside the Walmart circular in the Red Plum mailer in Orbit's top Walmart markets, with a BOGO offer for Orbit Big Pak or Orbit Base. For Kroger, we tapped into their Loyalty Card Mailer (LCM) program, offering $1.00 off coupon on Orbit Big Pak to those shoppers who had purchased Orbit within the past year.
Reach:
National
Total Media Expenditure:
$10-20 million
Results
GOAL: Achieve repeat purchase rate higher than Gum Average.
RESULT: Orbit Big Pak strengthened brand loyalty by achieving significantly higher repeat purchase rate for Orbit Big Pak than the Gum Average.
GOAL: Achieve repeat volume percentage higher than comparable upsized pack.
RESULT: Repeat volume of Orbit Big Pak increased steadily throughout the product launch, far surpassing the comparable repeat volume goal.
GOAL: Achieve a statistically directional shift in “cool brand to be seen with” and “always coming up with something new” brand image and innovation measures.
RESULT: The Orbit Big Pak campaign achieved a statistically significant shift in Orbit brand perceptions on both cool and innovative attribute measures, among those who saw the campaign and associated it with Big Pak.
GOAL: Achieve TV Ad Awareness above category norm.
RESULT: Generated top-level performance on advertising awareness. Total Campaign Awareness was over 40 percentage points higher than category norm, and all measured elements of the campaign also performed above norm on Ad Awareness, even the MTV Movie Awards Live TV Integration, which only aired one time.
GOAL: Achieve TV Brand Linkage above category norm.
RESULT: Generated top-level performance on brand linkage. Overall Brand Linkage for the campaign was 52 percentage points higher than category norm. Plus, the remaining measured elements of the campaign performed significantly well-above norm on Brand Linkage, with the exception of print.
