Our campaign for DEXTRO Energy, ‘Life’s hard. Cheat’, has delivered a 28% increase in sales purely on the basis of new advertising tactics, and this was achieved on a budget of less than 1% of the category spend.
The campaign reversed an underlying sales decline of 1% year on year and a long-term decline of 5% over the last three years. The success is even more impressive when taking into account the challenging competitive environment; the campaign weight equates to a 0.8% share of voice in this market.
Our in-house media and creative teams worked together to turn less advantaged media options into a winning position, achieving £1.18 return for every £1 spent.
2. Objectives and Strategy
DEXTRO Energy originally dates back to 1920 but since the early 1970s key usage has been amongst diabetics, with some historical but limited overlap into the sports market. In 2007, 71% of Dextro sales came from the pharmacy channel, yet only 14% of the UK’s diabetics are Type 1 sufferers who rely on dextrose. As a diabetes-led strategy was therefore limited, DEXTRO Energy needed to change tack and widen its reach by focusing on its brain & energy boosting credentials.
In September 2007, research carried out by the British Heart Foundation found that 60% of Britons would rather have an early introduction to the grim reaper than attend an exercise class! So there was no denying that the UK was full of ‘armchair athletes’ – people who love sport but don’t participate, busy parents too worn out to exercise, tired office workers with unused gym memberships…all of whom could do with a little help to get on with their days. Whilst many stimulants exist, one of the main differentiators with DEXTRO Energy is that it releases a natural sugar, dextrose, into the blood so it is a natural source of energy. During concept testing, the natural element of the product was found to be a highly motivating and differentiating factor.
The brand needed to be entirely repositioned, had no dedicated UK web presence, and faced competitors of a significant scale with strong credentials and very compelling campaigns.
The challenge to stabilise the sales decline, with a 5% growth ‘stretch’ target was a tough one. Not least because of a small budget but also because it required introducing the product to consumers of Lucozade and Red Bull, brands that had a combined media spend of £16m.
3. Implementation
The campaign ran for six weeks through August and September 2008 to coincide with the Beijing Olympics and associated editorial. TGI analysis into energy drink users showed that the audience was pretty mass. Prime channels were:
- National press
- Commuter titles (to reach busy working adults during the week)
- Online – Sky Sports network
- Online – ‘blind’ efficiency network to reach the mass in a cost effective manner
The only way we could achieve the required coverage with the given budget was to design the campaign around small space ads. We could maximise reach if we not only took advantage of distress space but booked the majority of the campaign on 5-day flex, where our number of insertions and subject matter of editorial could be guaranteed but not day of publication.
4. Campaign Proposition and Execution
Planning for this category had shown that the optimum opportunities to see (OTS) was 6-7 so we developed a series of six messages to avoid wear-out. These were deliberately open to interpretation, but all suggested when you might need an energy boost. ‘Extra mile? Shortcut!’ – it didn’t matter whether your extra mile was a longer jog, or going beyond the call of duty at work, it could have relevance whatever you were doing.
The ads were small, and re-sizeable for maximum flexibility to fit several titles including late availability. Plus they had to work online, so the creative needed to be simple and distinctive. This was achieved with the following elements:
- Heavy usage of red for stand out in a potentially cluttered environment
- The Dextro arrow was incorporated to depict energy and establish brand linkage
- ‘Extra oomph’ was distinctively colloquial, separating Dextro from the sports sponsorships of Lucozade and Red Bull
- ‘Naturally’ to communicate the product’s natural credentials
- Minimal copy on the ads, six words to be exact, so they could be scan read with little dilution of message
- Call to action to custom-built microsite www.brainbodyboost.co.uk to enhance understanding of benefits (rather than dextro.com). This was designed by us and built by the client’s existing web supplier.
5. Campaign results
- 28% increase in sales achieved on a budget of less than 1% of the category spend
- Reversed an underlying sales decline of 1% year on year and a long-term decline of 5% over the last three years
- £1.18 return for every £1 spent
- The usual uncertainties of booking media on ‘flex’ were turned to our advantage (via seamless media & creative processes) with our ads appearing in gloriously appropriate positions. ‘Life’s hard. Cheat’ appeared solus on a Daily Star spread about Pete Doherty and his tumultuous relationship with Kate Moss. ‘Uphill battle. Freewheel’ also appeared solus in a report headlined ‘Road to hell’ about Paula Radcliffe’s Olympic saga.
- Over 70% of heavy to medium weight energy drink users exposed to press campaign
- 14 million online impressions delivered
- 9000 click throughs to microsite
- Media value of £290,000 bought for £150,000
