This case exemplifies my philosophy of 'solve the real problem'. For the launch of NexGard (by Merial), the next generation in flea and tick protection, we were briefed to deliver a TVC to drive sales and awareness. However, after seeing the product (manufactured in the USA), I realised that the packaging looked exactly like their Frontline product - a product that had been in the Australian market for 20 years, had lost the confidence of vets and was declining in sales. An issue the USA didn't have.
No matter how good our TVC could be, I realised that the real problem was the packaging. If we were the 'next generation' in flea and tick protection, we needed to look like a next generation product. We put together a case for a packaging change for approval from global and got the nod. Not only did we reconstruct the entire NexGard brand strategy, but we diverted the funds we had to create a new TVC in order to re-do the packaging. For our TVC, we simply re-skinned the USA ad to be in line with our new ethos and look and feel.
We were the only market in the world to make a packaging change and create an entirely new brand idea. In 6 months we became the #1 brand in the market and we were the fastest brand to achieve the number one ranking ever.
This is a great example of never taking a brief at face value. Interrogate the brief and if you find it's focusing on the wrong problem to solve, make sure you do everything in your power to change it. Because that's what is going to make the brand sing.
Although Merial was still the leader in the Australian Pet Care category, when it came to flea and tick protection via the Frontline brand, its fortunes were falling fast. Due to new entrants such as Comfortis and Advantix, the Frontline brand was in free fall with year on year double digit declines of 15%.
Launching the category in 1994, had become the ‘Grandpa’ of the category. People perceived the brand as less innovative and, even more worryingly, less effective. Even vets, a key influencer and distribution channel, were switching to newer, more modern competitors.
Merial’s dominant position in Pet Care was in serious peril. Luckily, they were soon to launch a new premium product, NexGard, in Australia in an effort to revive Merial’s leadership in the Flea & Tick Protection Pet Care category.
In the US, where the NexGard product was being manufactured and global assets created, the Frontline brand is not only the number one brand, but suffers no negative perceptions by vets or consumers in terms of efficacy or lacking innovation. As a result, the global launch of the NexGard brand would be very much in lock-step with the Frontline brand look and feel - from the packaging to the advertising to the website. In fact, they’d call it out as ‘NexGard, from the makers of Frontline.’
The global creative also focused on solving a problem that Australians didn’t think was an issue: administering the product to your dog. The product, developed in a ‘beefy chew’ format, was advertised as the ‘easy way’ to protect your dog from fleas and ticks instead of messy spot on treatments or pills that your dog didn’t want to eat. But Australian’s didn’t see this as an issue in the first place.
If we were going to launch a brand with a premium price tag and turn Merial Australia’s fortunes around, having a NexGard product on shelf that looked almost identical to Frontline and messaging that wasn’t relevant was a big problem.
Not only would we risk acceptance of the product by vets who were losing faith in the Frontline brand, but consumers themselves.
To further complicate matters, there were two other products with the ‘Gard’ name that looked totally different, but would automatically be considered as part of the ‘Gard’ family, whether we liked it or not.
In a nutshell, launching with the US pack would have resulted in confusion as to what NexGard was as a product and an incomprehensible ‘Gard’ family at shelf.
If the NexGard product was to represent the future of Merial in Pet Care in Australia, then we needed to ensure that both consumers and vets understood that this truly was a next generation product. We couldn’t just let the ‘Nex’ in NexGard do the talking for us. Especially since we had other products on shelf such as HeartGard and ParaGard – similar names, but totally different benefits and tones.
We needed to demonstrate to Australian vets and consumers that this truly was a revolutionary product. And we needed to do it from the ground up.
We would be the only region in the world to launch the NexGard product in our way, but with good reason.
Given packaging was going to be our biggest and long standing public face, we needed to break from the global packaging design. To ensure we differentiated the NexGard Product from Frontline & Frontline Plus, we re-imagined the packaging to ensure it had a next generation look and feel to deliver next generation flea & tick protection. To do so, we took the production dollars from the TVC campaign we were originally briefed on and diverted it to fulfil this need.
We conducted a thorough competitive and strategic packaging review and found a clear space in terms of design. Our new packaging representing ‘next generation science’ hit the market with minimal vet support and no consumer support for 4 months. With just our new look, the product went out of stock before we even hit the airwaves with our mainline campaign.
Australian NexGard Packaging
We also needed to bring the rest of the Gard family in line with this new positioning. If any of our products had the word ‘Gard’ in it, it needed to represent the future of pet care and we were counting on the NexGard campaign and packaging providing a halo for the legacy HeartGard and ParaGard products.
To help convince vets and key trade accounts, that this was a game changing product, we knew that the Merial sales force couldn’t sell NexGard in the same old fashioned way; with analogue trade presenters.
We created a Lenovo sales app that allowed the reps to navigate their customers through the science behind the product, pack options and even lodge an order. It was time to revolutionise their sales force too.
We themed five NexGard product launch events throughout the country including a hype video and collateral introducing the product.
We created eye-stopping POS material including shelf fins, posters, wobblers and product dispensers.
We created both consumer and Vet websites. The consumer website being more topline, easy to digest information, while the vet website replicated the sales app which delved more deeply into the science and product testing.
And, of course, we brought it to our ATL campaign including OOH and television. Specifically, for the TVC, given we consciously moved our production budget for an original Australian TVC to packaging, we re-skinned the USA TVC footage to bring it in line with our 'next generation science' look and feel.
Film
OOH
By making the decision to recreate the entire brand ecosystem for the NexGard, HeartGard and and ParaGard brands, NexGrad not only become the #1 brand in the market at the fastest rate in history, but the packaging redesign even lifted HeartGard and ParaGard sales for the first time in 10 years with no advertising support.
