• by January 21, 2011

Have you ever thought about what you'd do if you were tasked with developing a digital marketing campaign for two over-the-counter brands under one portfolio? GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) recently tackled this dilemma for its Goody's Powder and BC Powder brands, and it did so by encouraging the competition. The program is a success and provides valuable insights into what brands should consider when developing a digital marketing campaign to reach today's digitally-savvy consumer.

The Case

GSK had been partnering with Richard Petty and Trace Adkins to promote Goody's Powder and BC Powder prior to developing a digital marketing campaign. The profile of the target audience for both brands aligns very closely with the profiles of racing's and country music's fan bases. So by creating the fierce, yet friendly, rivalry between racing's Petty (Goody's Powder) and country music's Adkins (BC Powder), it provided GSK with a platform for promoting the two brands through one campaign.

A Web-based program was developed to utilize the spokespeople. It put the two men in each other's worlds, with the ongoing challenge of who experiences the most pain. Radio tags, concert cards, and a race-day promotion were designed to drive consumers to http://www.pickapowder.com, where they could pick "Team Richard" or "Team Trace" to earn a chance to win a VIP experience at either a race or a concert. The site used Facebook Connect to personalize the experience for each registrant, while a catalogue of "rivalry videos" was rolled out through the fall.

In the first 10 days after the launch, site traffic included more than 14,000 visitors, 170,000 page views and a 40% conversion rate (visitors to registrants). The spokesmen also benefitted, with 20,000 new fans for Adkins and 2,000 new fans for Petty.

What We Can Learn

Even if you don't have competing brands in your portfolio, there are certain guidelines you can take from this program that will help in developing a successful digital/social media OTC brand campaign.

It's critical to have clear objectives and to determine up front how you would define success. Measure against those objectives, and pay close attention to a handful of important key performance indicators. Be data informed -- but not data driven -- and adjust the campaign accordingly.

Find a compelling way to engage. This requires a great idea, a flexible approach, and a unique content experience for the user. Consider how your idea will work in paid, owned and earned media. If it doesn't, then you don't have a very creative idea.

In social media, you want to provide as much opportunity for engagement as possible. Create tactics that will allow consumers to engage directly with your brand. For example, when consumers are interacting with individuals or personalities, develop wall posts to give extra entertainment value to participants. Just make sure not to hit them over the head with branded messages every time -- create a balance of authentic and scripted content.

And you can't create conversation for conversation's sake. You must have these three elements:

• The right Recency means you should be creating dialogue with only as much frequency as your brand realistically plays in your target's life. In other words, don't pepper their social networking pages with messages more than once a day for a product consumers only consume once a week.

• The right Relevancy means sharing news when you have it, serving up helpful tips and offers, and asking for their input on how to make great products and experiences.

• And lastly, the right Receptivity means you need to have a well-crafted and thorough content strategy to appropriately respond to consumer concerns, gain feedback on new initiatives, and take action from the learning.