With social media profiles since birth and devices in-hand 24/7, Gen Z is the most connected generation ever. Yet in a world forced into pandemic lockdown and a nation embroiled in a political pressure cooker, teens have also never been harder to reach. Their trust in adults, authority figures, and even traditional advertising is fractured. With this in mind, the Invisalign® brand faced an immense challenge in pursuing a growth opportunity identified in the teen market. But how do you convince teens to ditch traditional wire braces and choose Invisalign treatment to straighten their teeth given the challenges? The brand needed to create a genuine connection with the distrusting, ad-avoiding teen consumer.
To do just that, the Invisalign brand partnered with ViacomCBS's Gen Z-focused AwesomenessTV in 2020 with three clear goals. First, to capture the “cool factor” by infusing Invisalign aligners into pop culture where and how teens consume media. Second, to give teen consumers (and their parents) a reason to believe in Invisalign’s treatment category superiority. And third, to drive demand by empowering and exciting teens to ask their parents and orthodontist for Invisalign treatment.
Millions of teens and adults (9 million smiles and counting!) have chosen Invisalign treatment to get the smile they’ve always wanted. More than a few of them are Gen Z influencers that AwesomenessTV audiences know, love, and trust. In 2020, we reunited these digital stars in the Invisalign family to answer fans’ top questions. Baby Ariel, Carson Lueders, Johnny Orlando, and Lauren Orlando know Invisalign treatment inside and out and as members of the “Smile Squad,” lent their voices to our custom content.
Informed by the most searched questions on Google, and including concise FAQs demonstrating category superiority, we left no stone unturned. Snapchat story ads dubbed “Most Burning Questions” leaned into influencers’ credible voices and authentic Invisalign treatment experiences, highlighting Invisalign clear aligners’ unique features and process. “Countdown Reveal” creative also gamified Snap ads with selfie-style trivia posed to the viewer with limited time on the clock. The viewer had a chance to guess the right answer and learn a product or brand attribute in a bite-sized video experience.
To further demonstrate product superiority, we needed to give teens a reason to believe that Invisalign treatment was the best choice. We also knew that some questions required an expert. So via Instagram story ads in our “Ask My Ortho” series, we handed the mic to the experts in getting a smile you love - the orthodontists themselves. Doctors across the country gave us the lowdown on everything teens want to know about Invisalign aligners. This interplay between patient (Gen Z influencer) and doctor (orthodontist) continued in our “Transitions” Instagram story ad that blended their voices in a TikTok-inspired pass-the-baton between all of our “Smile Squad” and ortho experts.
To drive lead gen and excite teens to ask their parents & orthos for Invisalign treatment, all assets provided a direct CTA to Invisalign’s Smile Assessment - connecting consumers with pre-treatment FAQs and orthodontists near them. In total, we launched 35+ assets across talent and Invisalign brand O&O platforms, focusing on a blend of Instagram in-feed posts, Instagram story ads, Snapchat Ads, and Snapchat story ads.
Our marketing approach focused on meaningful moments and deep relationships that we could amplify with paid media. We enlisted experts to speak to the brand from their unique perspectives - teens talking to teens, and orthodontists taking the lead when a doctor’s perspective was best. We gave teen consumers a reason to believe that Invisalign treatment is the best choice by leveraging real-life experiences from trusted influencers and relying on orthodontists to relay hard-hitting product FAQ.
The balance of first-hand influencer experiences and orthodontist expertise hit the mark while providing a fitting environment for the brand, with 95% of Nielsen Brand Metrics study respondents noting that the Invisalign brand was a good fit within the content. In addition to direct fan engagement across organic and boosted social posts, our custom content drove lifts across key brand measures. Social assets generated significant lifts in affinity (+5 percentage points), purchase intent (+10 percentage points), recommendation intent (+7 percentage points), and message association (+18 percentage points). (Nielsen Media Analytics: 2020)
In 2020, our social media influencers delivered exciting new content and increased engagement for the Invisalign brand with consumers. Invisalign’s teen and mom-focused consumer campaign generated a +77% year-over-year increase in unique visitors to the Invisalign website and a 76% increase in leads generated. 2020 Invisalign cases for teenage patients were up 11.5% year-over-year; and while this content was in market in Q3 and Q4 2020, our teenage Invisalign treatment case sales were +25.6% YoY and +38.7% YoY, respectively.
