For decades, consumers have turned to Icy Hot to relieve their aches and pains. And, in 2022, the brand took it to the next level by introducing Icy Hot PRO: a product strong enough to provide pain relief to more physically active consumers and even professional athletes. We set out to introduce Icy Hot’s product innovation in a way befitting of news this big. Our goals were to introduce new spokes-athletes to increase brand awareness and, of course, sell a whole bunch of Icy Hot PRO.
To launch Icy Hot PRO, we brought in four star athletes: soccer star Rose Lavelle, Las Vegas tight end Darren Waller, tennis champion Sloane Stephens, and, of course, long term brand ambassador Shaquille O’Neal. We transported these athletes to a world of ice and heat to create the hottest, iciest, and most badass pain relief demo in the history of pain relief demos.
Creating the worlds of ice and heat required meticulous visual effects work. We shot our athletes in large warehouses with minimal set design—artificial snow in the ice world and desert sand in the heat world. In post production, we painstakingly crafted glaciers, an ice floor, swirling wind, Arizona-style red rocks, and even a fiery tennis ball projectile.
One of the most important visual effect elements of the campaign is the ice and heat effects we see on the athletes’ bodies. Shaq applies the product and his arm ices over, triggering the transition to the world of ice. Halfway through, we see a heat effect on Darren Waller’s arm, which, in turn, triggers the transition to the heat world. These ice and heat effects were designed to dramatize the user experience and cement the product benefits in the consumer’s mind.
Once we had our dynamic TVC , we leveraged our film for a multichannel offensive against our competitors. We created TikToks where Darren Waller, Sloane Stephens, and Shaquille O’Neal schooled viewers on the virtues of our new microspheres, massage nodes, and pain-melting mist. We ran retargeting assets on Facebook and Instagram directing consumers to specific skus within our new line. We even hosted PR events with each of our new spokes-athletes. Darren Waller’s Post Game Recovery Program, for example, garnered 1B impressions and grabbed headlines in publications like People, Us Weekly, and Page Six. The squad plus our immersive worlds put Icy Hot PRO on the map on every channel out there. A sure fire way to stay in the game in an increasingly crowded pain relief category.
Thanks to our campaign, the launch of Icy Hot PRO was a huge success that resulted in a dramatic increase in brand awareness. Visits to the Icy Hot’s website increased by 61.5% and we exceeded our sales goal by over 25%— resulting in the brand’s most successful product innovation ever. Putting Rose Lavelle, Darren Waller, and Sloane Stephens beside long-standing spokesperson, Shaq, revitalized the brand and directed the eyes of soccer, football , and tennis enthusiasts to our space on the shelf.
