• by Larissa Faw , December 2, 2014

Icelandic Health has selected InterMedia Advertising as its agency of record for its Axial Rx joint health formula, a new product that InterMedia is now responsible for launching.

InterMedia will handle creative, media planning and buying, and overall account stewardship for the over-the-counter brand which was introduced in October. 

The agency was selected as part of an internal review by Icelandic Health, although the process was not formal in the sense that an RFP was issued. 

“We selected InterMedia because of its long and successful history in launching and growing health supplements,” said Forrest Haag, Brand Manager for Axial Rx. “With InterMedia’s years and breadth of expertise, this puts us on the fast track to get Axial Rx into the hands of consumers nationwide.”

The first creative - debuting the week of December 8 - combines education with activation. Each spot blends product benefits, customer testimonials, an offer of a free 10-day trial of Axial Rx, that collectively, serve as a call-to-action. Additionally, the spots are designed to be highly demonstrative; they graphically depict how Axial Rx can help promote cartilage repair.

The ad buy will be national in scope, initially utilizing 10 to 12 targeted cable networks, including Fox News, Headline News, and ESPN, that agency executives have identified as highly cost-efficient in reaching the target demographic of Adults 50+, as well as having a history of strong direct response performance.

The campaign will be augmented with spots on InterMedia’s proprietary cable network platform CPM Network that executives say carries the top 70 national cable networks in almost 90 million homes. 

Similarly to the staggered creative rollout, the campaign is launching with 120-second spots exclusively, followed by 60-second spots once sufficient exposure has been achieved within the target market. 

"The goal is to simultaneously drive significant, cost-efficient product sales while building the new product’s brand image," says Bob Yallen, President, CEO, InterMedia Advertising. "As with any launch in a crowded category, the biggest challenges are creating awareness and credibility for the new product while positioning it as superior to the competition. These objectives must be accomplished while meeting or exceeding Icelandic Health’s aggressive, but attainable, direct response metrics and sales goals for the launch period."

Florida-based Iceland Health declines to divulge the advertising budget for this campaign. However, the company which sells an array of nutritional products that promote heart, joint, vision, brain and overall health spent $103,000 on advertising between January and June 2014, up dramatically from the $8,000 the company spent during the first six months in 2013, according to Kantar Media. Its total ad spend in 2013 was $172,000.