In with the new with Lorna Hawtin

In this IPA/Thinkbox effectiveness film, we look at brands that have really hit the ground running when launching new products and how we can plan for success. Using award-winning examples from the IPA Effectiveness Awards Lorna Hawtin and Tony Regan talk us through a world of risk, getting retailers on side, intellectual alibis and powerful storytelling. 

Appearing on film 

• Lorna Hawtin, Convenor of Judges in the 2014 IPA Effectiveness Awards and Disruption Director of TBWA Manchester
• Tony Regan, Co-Founder of Brand Performance. 

Summaries of the IPA Effectiveness winners referenced in the film

Dacia. Making frugality pay 

In mid-2012 Renault announced that it would launch a new car brand into the UK market, Dacia. Working together with Publicis to overcome the prejudices often directed at cheaper cars, especially ones from Eastern Europe, Dacia’s launch year was the best first year result ever recorded by a new car brand.  The launch campaign used communications to make people proud of, not embarrassed by, their choice, by poking fun at traditional car advertising and championing no-nonsense frugality instead. The UK launch outperformed Dacia’s other European launches, selling nearly 22,000 cars, delivering a ROMI of 4.

Kärcher UK - Transforming a business by making the UK's most hated chore fun

In 2011 Kärcher planned to launch the Window Vac, an indoor cleaning tool. However, consumers appeared under-whelmed, having no clear sense of its capabilities and associating Kärcher with outdoor appliances. Kärcher realised that to achieve sales targets consumers needed to see it work, and that this required broadcast media, prompting a multi-media campaign which ran from March 2012. Early evaluation showed TV had long-lived effects and that consumers remembered the advertising, becoming effective advocates. The campaign has allowed Kärcher to shift commercial position from a heavy reliance on weather-sensitive pressure washers, to selling almost 50% indoor products in just two years.

Sensodyne Pronamel launch - Gaining and maintaining a first-mover advantage

With diets changing, the growing problem for people’s teeth has become acid wear. GSK identified a gap in the market and created Sensodyne Pronamel to tackle this emerging condition, the first new toothpaste category for 24 years. Sensodyne faced the challenge of making the public aware of the risk to their teeth from ‘invisible’ acid wear and launched a campaign that used dentists as educators and advocates of the product. Using a TV heavy strategy that gave the feeling of public health announcements and linking acid wear to healthy eating, Sensodyne built and maintained their leadership of this new category, reaching a brand penetration of just over 6% in the UK and US, equating to around 10 million people purchasing the product.

McCain Ready Baked Jackets - Using the power of insight to solve the paradox of a product that seemed too good to be true

In late 2010 McCain launched McCain Jackets, driven by the insight that consumers love the taste of an oven baked potato but they take too long to make. However, consumers did not believe that a product cooked in five minutes could taste as good as a conventional oven baked potato. Insights lead by PHD Media highlighted definitive roles for paid, owned and earned media that helped McCain to solve this through integrated communications. Paid media drove awareness and appetite appeal, achieving 56% prompted awareness and a ROMI of 1.25. Mass trial through owned media was undertaken to counteract negative preconceptions, in turn creating earned media that could be harnessed as credible endorsement and coverage. The launch established a new mass market product category, reaching 4.1 million households and 15.6% penetration in year one.