Depend: GREAT AMERICAN TRY-ON

Credits & Description:

Category: Best New Product Launch/Re-Launch or Multi-Product Promotion at Retail

Advertiser: KIMBERLY CLARK

Product/Service: DEPEND

Agency: OGILVY NEW YORK

Executive Creative Director: Alison Gragnano (Ogilvy New York)

Group Creative Director: Victoria Azarian (Ogilvy New York)

Creative Director/Copywriter: Lisa Savage (Ogilvy New York)

Creative Director/Art Director: Tracy Mcfarlane (Ogilvy New York)

Executive Producer: Melanie Baublis (Ogilvy New York)

Senior Producer: Cindy Leibowitz (Ogilvy New York)

Assistant Producer: Jeanette Sanchez (Ogilvy New York)

Director: Renny Maslow (Smuggler Films)

Editor: Nelson Leonard (The Now Corporation)

Director/Production: Tom Hillenbrand (Organic)

Senior Copywriter: Nate Rogers (Organic)

Creative Director: Cinnamon Pritchard (Orgranic)

Group Creative Director: Amy Hodgins Carvejal (Organic)

Creative Director: Maria Barbera (Ogilvyaction)

Media placement: TV Spot - Various Network And Cable Channels - 2 April 2012

Media placement: Online - Youtube - 28 March 2012



Describe the objective of the promotion.

The adult incontinence category is laden with anxiety and perceptions of old age, illness and immobility. The majority of current “diaper-like” product offerings perpetuate category perceptions.



In 2012, Depend introduced two new garments (Depend Real Fit Briefs and Depend Silhouette) that had the power to radically change the way consumers view the Depend brand. The new garments are far superior to anything on the market because of their underwear-like look and feel.



To help consumers experience the new innovations firsthand, the objective was to drive participation in “The Great American Try On”: a high profile nation wide sampling initiative.



Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation.

Our challenge was to launch these products in a way that changed the way consumers think about adult underwear and inspired them to request a sample.

 

The idea was “The Great American Try-On”, which boldly invited incontinent and continent people alike to try-on Depend’s breakthrough products. We garnered widespread buzz by getting high-profile celebrities and athletes –who don’t need the product— to try it on for charity and prove how underwear-like the fit really is.

 

Premium product sampling was a critical driver in encouraging broad participation of the program by enabling consumers to “try-on” the new innovations for themselves.



Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service.

Consumers had to experience Depend’s underwear like qualities for themselves in order to abandon negative category perceptions. Thus, sampling was the most effective means by which they could truly grasp how comparable the new Depend product was to real underwear.



Also, given the lack of discussion around incontinence, it was imperative to establish social currency on a large scale. The massive buzz around the celebrity participation succeeded in getting consumers to stop and realize how vastly different Depend’s new product was from anything they’ve tried. (The use of a charity helped explain why continent celebrities were trying it on.)



Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results.

Thus far the program has succeeded in mass participation as demonstrated by large increases in sampling requests. One month after launch, sampling requests for Depend Real Fit Briefs and Depend Silhouette were 720% percent higher compared to sample requests of a new Depend product during the same time period in 2011. Moreover, from March 28, 2012 to April 27, 2012, samples by request were shipped to over 90,000 people, nearly 10,000 units greater than a nine-month promotion the previous year. We also received over 1 billion media impressions within the first month and shipments were the highest in Depend’s history.