As America's #1 antacid, TUMS is well-known for its history of heartburn relief. But now, the product consumers know and love relieves more than just heartburn. That's right, new TUMS Chewy Bites with Gas Relief fights heartburn AND gas.
To drive consideration and purchase intent of this new product, TUMS sought to appeal to a target in denial of their symptoms: millennials.
While 89 percent of 18-34-year-olds have experienced at least one digestive issue in the past twelve months, only half of them have treated it (Source: Mintel 2017 Digestive Health). Instead, they choose to live with their symptoms or modify their diet, and regard digestive issues as a problem of an older generation.
With the goal of enticing these heartburn category newbies to try TUMS Chewy Bites with Gas Relief, we needed to create an engaging social campaign relevant to our food-loving target, complete with ample sampling opportunities to convince millennials to try our new product.
Millennials aren't going to stop eating—and what's more, they're not going to stop eating adventurously. And because 89% of our target has experienced at least one digestive issue in the past twelve months, we know they're not going to stop getting heartburn and gas, either.
To successfully convince millennials that choosing to relieve—rather than ignore—their symptoms do not immediately qualify them for a "Boomer membership," TUMS had to make heartburn and gas a part of millennial culture. And because food is at the epicenter of the millennial lifestyle, we inserted TUMS into the official season of eating: summertime. But rather than simply planting our campaign into a pre-existing food occasion, we turned summertime into TummerTime—a season all about celebrating adventurous eating, without heartburn and gas.
Launch
To kick off TummerTime with a bang, we launched by delivering on-demand relief to three major cities—New York, Atlanta, and Chicago—with fans receiving "TummerTime Relief Kits," branded tote bags full of Instagrammable goodies including a bottle of new TUMS Chewy Bites with Gas Relief; an insulated drink tumbler, AKA "The TUMSbler"; and a super-hip and useful pool drink floatie in one hour or less. Supported through tactical national and local media outreach, we drove consumers to Twitter, where they could tweet with #PassTheTums for a chance to win.
Influencers
To reach our target via a language they speak, we partnered with comedic, millennial influencers to get the word out about TummerTime using a variety of platforms to deliver the message that relieving heartburn and gas isn't just for older generations. Our influencers drove consumer participation of the TummerTime giveaway through still and video content posted to Twitter and Instagram, while spreading the word about new TUMS Chewy Bites with Gas Relief in a lighthearted, relatable way. Influencers maintained the TummerTime buzz through additional social content posted throughout the summer months, poking fun at the millennial lifestyle and Instagram culture while encouraging fans to enjoy ALL the eats this TummerTime—without heartburn and gas.
Additional Social Creative
Throughout the campaign, TummerTime social creative supporting the launch was posted to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, clearly communicating the dual benefits of TUMS Chewy Bites with Gas Relief through the overarching TummerTime campaign lens. Product-heavy digital video reinforced TUMS benefits and generated additional awareness across channels.
By transforming summertime into TummerTime, we made a splash about our newest offering in the season of adventurous eating. Through a real-time giveaway, plus influencer and TUMS-owned creative, we reinforced product messaging across platforms new and familiar, driving home the message that contrary to popular belief, TUMS helps safeguard millennials' most beloved summer food moments—ensuring that every spicy, tasty, adventurous bite can be enjoyed thanks to new TUMS Chewy Bites with relief from both heartburn and gas.
Through successful communication of this product's multi-benefit relief, TUMS Chewy Bites with Gas Relief exceeded all of its objectives across brand awareness, sales and brand love.
1. Brand Awareness
○ Influencer content posted to Twitter and Instagram earned 142K engagements, 3.9M impressions and 1.7M video views; each piece of creative exceeding TUMS's Q1 benchmarks.
2. Brand Love
○ Average age of consumers who engaged with the TummerTime Giveaway was 26, meaning the activation successfully engaged the millennial target we sought.
○ Social content received extremely positive sentiment across the board, a testament to our millennial influencers' ability to effectively communicate brand messaging through engaging narrative.
3. Sales Lift
○ In the last six months since launching the program, the TUMS brand has seen a 26% growth in younger millennials born after 1989, indicating that more millennials are actively treating their heartburn (Source: IRI panel data pulled 2/13/19, R52W Change % June 17 2018-Jan 27 2019).
The above results show significant over-delivery across all three brand objectives, and demonstrate a level of new product awareness and relevance that will allow us to seamlessly incorporate TUMS Chewy Bites with Gas Relief and its unique benefits into future social and digital creative campaigns.
