With the cold and flu season just around the corner, GSK is launching a £7.5m investment to drive awareness of its portfolio, worth £63.9m collectively, including Day & Night Nurse, Beechams and Otrivine, to help pharmacists and retailers capitalise on the seasonal sales opportunity. Two in five cold and flu sales are emergency purchases, demonstrating the need for pharmacists to help with cold and flu symptom management.
Andy Mahoney, Area Marketing Manager Northern Europe, Respiratory, GSK says: “With research showing that 32% of customers are looking for the strongest cold and flu relief, we have a job to do in educating on the role that our portfolio of brands can have for consumers during the peak season. As a leader in the cold and flu market, it is important that we invest in the category and help drive growth.
“When feeling unwell it is easy to grab the first product you see in a bid to stave off the illness, but by driving awareness of our range, we hope to help educate shoppers on the role our cold and flu products can play in providing effective relief of symptoms.
Additionally, at GSK we are on a mission to help reduce the burden on NHS resources by accelerating cold and flu self-care in the UK and we hope our investment will help to raise this awareness, making it easier for shoppers to find the right product to treat their symptoms.”
Day & Night Nurse
Day & Night Nurse, worth £30.5m, will be returning to the nations screens with a £4.1m media investment and brand new TV campaign communicating its latest creative strategy, ‘Strong stuff – Day & Night Nurse can knock out your worst cold and flu symptoms’. Running from mid-September to February 2018, the visuals include a reference to making a honey and lemon drink in a mug when a cold goes from bad to worse – but this won’t cut it. The ad moves to a boxing glove ‘knocking’ and breaking the mug to make way for Day & Night Nurse Capsules – with its pharmacy strength and 24 hour relief, it’s strong stuff that can ‘knock out’ your worst cold and flu symptoms day and night, which is only available at the pharmacy counter. The TV campaign will also be supported with an ITV weather sponsorship, OOH, digital and instore activations.
Currently one fifth of consultations with a GP account for minor ailments including cold & flu symptoms, which is costing the NHS around £370m per year. The new TV campaign aims to help reduce GP visits and drive more cold and flu sufferers to the pharmacy counter, to increase awareness that this is where they can find a strong solution such as Day & Night Nurse.
Beechams
Alongside the new Day & Night Nurse Capsules advert, GSK has increased its media spend further this year, providing amplified investment into the category for Beechams, which is currently worth £20.8m. Last year’s popular tonguein- cheek Beechams ad featuring the man in a duvet will be returning to screens in October for a third season as part of a £2.96m investment. The TV ad is supported by reactive TV and a new multi-channel media plan including i-video, OOH and digital.
Otrivine
As an expert brand in nasal health, another GSK star performer this season has been Otrivine which is experiencing strong growth of +15.9% and worth £12.6m due to increased support and investment behind media spend and in-store presence as part of the GSK Winter Remedies portfolio.
Mahoney concludes: “By reaching a wide range of shoppers with our media investments, we want to be able to continue to provide the products consumers need to continue their everyday life during the winter months, whilst also driving awareness from GP’s to pharmacists as the initial go-to for cold and flu solutions and maximise sales opportunities.”
Comments are closed.