• by Tameka Kee , July 2, 2008

Bucking the agency consolidation trend, The Elations Co. has tapped more than five shops--including a boutique Web design firm, an independent creative agency, and a media-buying behemoth--to helm the relaunch of Elations, a supplement drink for joint pain.

Elations contains the National Institute of Health's recommended doses of Glucosamine and Chondroitin in liquid format, which the company says facilitates better absorption of the joint health compounds.

The Cincinnati-based company, a division of Beverages Holding, LLC, has launched LiveElated.com, an online community geared toward women over age 55, to help spread the word and drive sales of the fruit-flavored supplement. In conjunction with the Web site, which has been live since June 1, The Elations Co. also developed a set of Direct Response Television (DRTV) ads that are running, or are slated to run, on cable stations like Food Network, Soap Net and WEtv.

Elations initially launched in midsummer 2007, but according to David Silver, brand manager at The Elations Co., the original marketing push was not as effective as they had planned. So with the help of MRI research from media giant MediaVest, social media mapping data from Sway, and strategic insight from Dig Communications, the company embarked on a new strategy that narrowed the target market and figured out how best to reach them.

"Some of the tactics we're using are different, but some of the things are the same," Silver said. "For example, we did in-store sampling during the initial launch, and we're still maintaining sampling at events like arthritis walks, marathons and The Race for the Cure. But we did a few focus groups to help understand how our consumer was finding out about joint pain, and how they tell each other about the info they find. We found that they were using blogs, message boards and email to share the info that they were finding on sites like WebMD."

Silver said that Dig Communications, The Elations Co.'s strategic PR and marketing firm, brought in Sway, a social media-oriented marketing and research firm, to develop a concept that would help the company target joint supplement consumers that were "passionate about taking care of themselves and obtaining information on their health, and were really influential about sharing that info."

Cincinnati-based Pop Design Works built the Web site, which features forums and message boards, and blogs from health and wellness experts, as well as tools like weight-loss trackers. LiveElated.com also allows members to search for local walking groups and cooking clubs, as well as upload testimonials and photos.

Silver said that the community would be benchmarked against other, vertically targeted social media sites, but also judged by success metrics such as time spent, unique visitors and the number of articles that were shared via widgets.

Meanwhile, The Buchanan Group and Carafiello Diehl & Associates were called in to create the DRTV spots, which focus on the clinical benefits of taking joint supplements in drink form, and a more visually oriented, emotional sell, respectively.

Silver said that the multiple sources of research, creative and strategic insight have actually led to a more cohesive, streamlined campaign--one that the company is confident will drive the kinds of results they are looking for.

"It's been interesting," Silver said. "There are just two of us-- myself and our marketing director--to interface with the agencies, and we take a hands-off approach. We have a weekly status update, and a quarterly meeting where everyone comes together to talk, but for the most part, (we) encourage communication between them, so that if there are things that we don't need to be involved in, or questions we don't need to answer, they can do it themselves."

Silver said that the multi-agency specialist strategy had been working well, and that The Elations Co. did not see any immediate need to consolidate. "We've always looked to the agencies for the ideas," he said. "We do the research, but we look to them for the execution, like how to go to market and where."