• by Karl Greenberg , December 1, 2010

Prestige Brands is hoping to grab market share in kids' cold medicine with PediaCare, which it acquired this fall as part of a $190 million deal for Blacksmith Brands.

The Irvington, N.Y.-based Prestige, which also owns Compound W; Chloraseptic; New-Skin liquid bandage; Murine and Clear Eyes; and Little Remedies pediatric products, closed the deal this month. IN addition to PediaCare, the acquisition gives Prestige a lineup of brands that includes denture products Efferdent and Effergrip; Luden's throat drops; and allergy meds NasalCrom.

The campaign for PediaCare, which was developed by Portland, Maine-based Via Group, includes TV spots with a hand-held camera feel intended to evoke home movies. No parents are shown -- only the kids, and the camera remains stationary. The TV spots were directed by John Budion, who has experience with straight-on shots of kids, as he did the E*Trade ads featuring babies with grownup voices.

"We were on-air ... just two weeks after acquiring this line," said Tim Connors, CMO for Prestige Brands Holding, Inc., in a statement. "It is our plan to reach consumers now, at the beginning of the cough/cold season when parents are most in need of remedies for their children's ailments."

The company's launch follows turmoil within the big dog in the segment, McNeil Consumer Healthcare's Johnson & Johnson. The company's recalls this year of products under the Tylenol, Benadryl, Motrin, and Zyrtec brands essentially took the company's children's and infant's line off the shelves starting in May this year.

A report by Mintel released on Wednesday, covering the OTC market for pediatric-care products, notes that total sales this year will be about $620 million, which would be a 2% decline from last year. The report says the segment's growth opportunities are clouded both by J&J's imbroglio and by the Federal Drug Administration's upcoming safety and efficacy review of kids' cold products. Also, the absence of an H1N1-style flu spike this year will slow sales, notes the firm.

This may be good news for PediaCare. "Even though the company appears to be on track to return to regular production in 2011, it will be anything but business as usual for J&J's children's remedy brands for the foreseeable future," says the report.

"The quality control problems that led to the recalls undermine the company's and the brands' images for quality and safety. And from a practical standpoint, the time that J&J's brands have spent off the shelf has given retailers the opportunity to bolster the presence of their store brands."