Instant brew cold-and-flu medicine? That’s GlaxoSmithKline's new
distribution idea for Theraflu with single-use plastic pods that fit into
Keurig and similar coffee makers. Theraflu PowerPods are hitting shelves now,
supported by a new advertising and marketing campaign that highlights the
convenient—and hipster-ish—take on the popular coffee pods.
GSK Theraflu senior brand manager Latisha Tillie said the team was brainstorming
ways to improve and change cold-and-flu treatment for people in the throes of
illness when someone threw out the idea. Why not put the powdered medicine
in a pod? After all, about 40% of households own the convenient single-serve
coffee machine, she noted.
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The campaign includes 15-second and 30-second TV ads that show “the cold
and flu-fighting machine you put in your machine,” along with an online video
series called “Convenient Kitchen” that explains how to use the product.
Digital and social media buys, public relations, in-store promos and influencer
engagement come along with the commercials and videos.
GSK is hoping to raise awareness with some offbeat elements as well. Shelf
talkers, for instance, will reside in the grocery store coffee aisle and
feature SnapChat codes users enter to bring up a 3D box with information.
TheraFlu is also continuing its partnership with the Weather Channel for its branded cold-and-flu season tracker, as
part of the overall effort in the just-beginning flu season. Last year’s
Weather Channel effort, part of the launch campaign for Theraflu ExpressMax
caplets, delivered almost 50 million unique visits and sparked “a
significant rise in sales among app users during the peak flu season,”
according to GSK’s annual report.
With SnapChat elements, influencers and the ongoing crowdsourced digital
tracker, this year’s campaign has a definite digital bent. Tillie said the
target demo is people ages 25-50, which is the millennial generation and Gen
Xers. Millennials, parents of young children and others in that age group will
be important adopters for the product, Tillie said.
“In this category, there hasn’t been any big branded innovation in awhile,
and as we were talking to retailers and trying to sell the product in, they
were getting really excited. Which is hard to do in the cold-and-flu space,”
Tillie said. The same thing happened in focus groups, where enthusiastic
consumers asked if they could have the PowerPods right away, she said.
Theraflu is one of GSK Consumer Healthcare’s power brands, and although the
unit does not break out individual brand revenue, it did note that sales
“outperformed the market, with high single digit growth,” in its 2017 annual
filing.
