Objectives

MUCINEX® is America’s #1 doctor recommended cough and cold brand that consumers trust to help improve their journey from sickness back to wellness. Typically, consumers have found relief with Mucinex by purchasing the product at drug, supermarket and mass merchandisers. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Mucinex elevated its brand purpose – “To Be A Helper” – by accelerating a new direct-to-consumer business model that made its and cold flu remedies more directly available to its customers during their time of need. 

Taking a bold step for an OTC brand, Mucinex overhauled its website and leveraged its social channels to allow consumers to buy Mucinex products directly from the brand. The overall objective of the campaign was to extend the brand’s purpose of “being a helper” by establishing the category and brand’s first direct-to-consumer business model.

Strategy and Execution

Mucinex created its first social commerce “moment” by hosting a live-streamed social commerce fashion show on YouTube featuring high profile lifestyle YouTubers to call attention to the brand’s new direct-to-consumer selling platform. To build excitement for the direct-to-consumer launch, Mucinex collaborated with two high-end fashion designers to create Mucinex Sickwear™, a limited-edition capsule clothing collection and wellness solution that helps consumers look good and feel better. The news of this innovative capsule collection – which blended both the art (fashion) and science (Mucinex) of the brand – served as the disruptive announcement driving consumers to the new DTC site on launch day. Mucinex brought this to life through the execution of the brand’s first DTC launch campaign, which included the following elements: 

• First-of-its-kind fashion line & OTC brand collaboration: To bring comfort and style to consumers, Mucinex collaborated with fashion icons Steven Alan and The Great Eros’ Christina Viviani to create Sickwear, a first-of-its kind six-piece gender-neutral collection. The capsule collection combines the perfect blend of scientific innovation and artistic design bringing comfort and style to consumers, just in time for cold and flu season. 
• Direct-to-consumer live stream fashion show featuring YouTube influencers: A bold and unexpected tactic for an OTC brand, digital agency Barbarian and production company m ss ng p eces helped Mucinex stage its first social commerce moment, by hosting a live-streamed social commerce fashion show on YouTube. During the show, the collection’s designers and top YouTube influencers presented the Sickwear capsule collection directly from their bedrooms, and officially launched the brand’s direct-to-consumer website.
• “Front Row of The Future:” Influencer agency partner, Legend, curated a team of YouTube creative disrupters at the forefront of innovation and culture to help spark the brand’s new social commerce and lifestyle initiative, dubbing them Mucinex’s “Front Row of The Future.” This collection of YouTubers – including social personalities Chriselle Lim, Drew Scott, Nava Rose, Daniella Perkins and Jacques Slade – debuted the collection during the live-streamed event by turning their private bedrooms into runways to help launch the brand’s DTC business platform.
• Breakthrough media coverage: Robust media relations efforts drove widespread awareness of the MUCINEX brand’s bold DTC move, social commerce launch event, capsule collection and purpose of “being a helper.”

Results

On launch day, MUCINEX proved that it could extend its purpose of “being a helper” and become more than just a typical cold and flu remedy for consumers during their times of need. Results included:

Social/Influencer: 

• Dedicated videos from seven influencers generated 325,000 total views, with additional social content driving 576,543 impressions and 112,697 engagements. 

Media:

• The launch of the Mucinex brand’s DTC business model generated more than 95 million earned media impressions, including placements in WWD, Business Insider and Ad Age. 
• In a second feature article with WWD, the publication singled out the Mucinex Sickwear Collection as one of the best collaborations of “art and science” in 2020.

Web Traffic:

• The brand’s first foray into social commerce and engaging YouTube influencers to help spread the word also proved to be a great commercial success with daily traffic on Mucinex.com increasing by 162% and time spent on the site increasing by 44%. 

Sales: 

• Most importantly the brand experienced a phenomenal bump in Mucinex product sales, with a 236% increase in product sales vs. the same week YA and a 125% increase in total sales in 24 hours vs. the three-month daily average.
• The MUCINEX Sickwear collection sold out in less than 24 hours, with orders for the new line of clothing coming in from consumers across the country via the brand’s new DTC site.

Media