Garden of Life is the #1 vitamin and supplement brand in the natural channel and on Amazon. However, the brand was lesser-known in Food, Drug and Mass retailers, where products had recently expanded.
Sensing an opportunity, the company decided to make probiotics—and one main consumer benefit—its first focus. We pushed the creative and messaging limits for its #1 selling Dr. Formulated Women’s Daily Care probiotics in the historically conservative category to differentiate the brand.
Timing was everything: Garden of Life felt it was vital to drive product differentiation in a growing, crowded category that was gaining new entrants almost daily due to an increase in usage, consumer confidence, and interest in the prevention and ownership of one’s health, especially in light of COVID-19.
Our objective was to create a national ad campaign to drive brand awareness and sales growth as Garden of Life committed to a long-term investment in national, high-reach media for the probiotics category. In addition to growing Garden of Life probiotics’ year-over-year sales, we aimed to increase the buying rate by 10% and brand awareness by 3%.
The classic Garden of Life target audience segments are the “True Believers” and “Enlightened Environmentalists” who seek out—and pay more for—clean and organic products. They are very active buyers in the health and wellness category. A large percentage of these people are already shopping in the natural channel and on Amazon for their supplements. They are very aware of Garden of Life and have most likely purchased or considered one or more of the brand’s products in the past.
In order to hit our awareness goals, we needed to target the “Healthy Realist” segment. This audience is also health conscious, but needs a little more convincing to pay more for premium supplements. This audience is also more likely to shop in Target and Walmart.
In order to capture the attention of the “Healthy Realists,” we needed a way to lead with a consumer benefit that is easy to understand and articulate.
The probiotics category is growing, but it lacks a dominant brand leader and clear communication. Consumers are overwhelmed with deciphering what probiotics do, the difference between products, and what all those billions of strains and cultures actually mean. They know they should take probiotics, but they can’t pinpoint exactly why.
The reality is, probiotics help with women's gut health, digestion, and regularity, which basically means they help women poop better. However, most brands and commercials are vague and scared to talk directly about pooping—especially when it comes to women pooping—which ultimately perpetuates the unfamiliarity and knowledge gap women have with probiotics.
This insight led to our desire to break through the noise with clear, simple, informative and humorous messaging that overcomes the taboo around women and pooping, empowering women to take control of their gut health with Garden of LIfe’s Dr. Formulated Probiotics and feel confident doing so.
In order to truly be the category leader, we wanted to act differently and talk about a topic that no one else dares to: Garden of Life is the #1 probiotics brand that helps women #2.
We wanted to reinforce that Garden of Life is the leader in probiotics while also conveying the key product benefit in a humorous way—it helps you poop. Because we were pushing the limits of what had been done before in the category as well as what networks and media partners would allow to run, a censored and uncensored version were created. Additionally, for linear TV, specific retail channels were included on the end card as a call to action.
Due to the clarity of the messaging in the video creative, we created a media plan that was heavier than usual in past years on video across all types of placements, including linear TV, streaming/OTT, DSP video and social.
The health and wellness category is a growing and crowded one that makes shopping for vitamins and supplements difficult for consumers. By bringing clarity to confused customers with clear, simple, and breakthrough messaging about the #1 selling Dr. Formulated Women’s Daily Care probiotics, we increased Garden of Life’s sales by 22.4%, awareness by 4%, buying rate by 17%, and consumers’ emotional resonance with the brand.
We also solidified Garden of Life’s position as a trusted leader in the mass and natural channels, and became the top selling probiotic SKU in many major retailers, including Target, Whole Foods, and Vitamin Shoppe.
While we were seeing 12.6% YoY growth prior to the campaign, sales spiked to 35% YoY growth due to the campaign (accounting for the 22.4% increase). Not only did the buying rate for the brand grow as a whole, but the Women's Once Daily Probiotic experienced 25-50% weekly year-over-year sales in Walmart and Target, and grew to be the #1 selling probiotic SKU in many of the new major retailers, including Target, Whole Foods, and Vitamin Shoppe.
The 4% growth in brand awareness led to an all-time brand high of 51%. Additionally, it achieved a 6% increase in positive evaluations and a 3% increase in consideration. The campaign contributed to 5 billion PR impressions for the year.
