This is an example of a great TV campaign that “simply worked”: a clear creative message tied to core insight, delivered through effective TV planning. From 2002, following some regional TV testing to validate a larger campaign, Roundup began promoting the benefits of weedkiller with straight-talking advertising. Some clever TV planning and buying allowed the brand to achieve disproportionate benefit in terms of incremental spend and took it from a failing 3rd ranked outsider to the undisputed market leader in volume and value. Advertising in its first year helped grow the market by nearly 50% and delivered an 86% rise in volume sales. This was despite that fact that Roundup was a very young brand costing 43% more than the advertised competition. TV advertising drove down the perceived effectiveness of the competition and made Roundup the No.1 for key weedkilling properties. In doing so, it has delivered £19m additional sales and millions of extra profit.

For the complete case study visit the WARC website.