In an ever-competitive allergy category, ZYRTEC® is committed to continuing to advance reach with multicultural consumers in ways that authentically resonate because we understand the unique allergy suffering challenges they face. In 2023, our primary objective was to drive multicultural awareness and consideration of ZYRTEC® products primarily with African American & Hispanic target audiences. In order to do this, ZYRTEC® needed to differentiate itself in a highly competitive & saturated category through engaging content.
There’s white space currently available to brands via humor which is underutilized despite its effectiveness in driving engagement and relevance. In a recent study by Oracle, 91% of people globally prefer brands to be funny and 72% would choose a brand that uses humor over the competition (source: The Drum). Given this insight, ZYRTEC® aimed to differentiate itself from competitors and leaned into this space by giving viewers a comedic spectacle through the experiences of relatable, allergy suffering individuals. Our strategic approach was to provide a unique way for the brand to engage with consumers outside of their longstanding, traditional media, to strengthen brand equity and consideration via platforms that provided authentic connections to these target demographics. Hence, we created the "Retreated" series. Centering aroun[g & hiking (115ix).
We executed this series by sourcing minority-owned partners that would allow us to tap into a mass reach, multicultural following. In line with our purpose-driven objective of fostering multicultural affinity, collaborating with Hartbeat enabled us to gain access to an expansive and influential entertainment platform and a premium talent pool, boasting a vast and highly engaged audience.
Working with an experiential partner like Camp Yoshi allowed us to embrace camping culture within a curated natural setting, mirroring what one might see in their consumer-facing expeditions. Their vision of establishing a haven for BIPOC and allied audiences to rediscover a connection with nature, coupled with the commitment to offering opportunities to those often underrepresented, unaware, or unable to partake in such experiences, profoundly resonated with our brand.
In collaboration with Hartbeat we partnered with 4 unique, funny and talented creators and artists to bring this series to life. Through custom digital and social-first videos we gave viewers an engaging storyline of the influencers’ journeys on the weekend-long camping trip.
In total we created three long-form and nine short-form cutdown videos that were posted across Hartbeat's media subsidiary, Laugh Out Loud’s (LOL) YouTube, Facebook, Instagram & TikTok channels. The social videos served as different touchpoints for viewers to learn about the campaign and ultimately drive viewership to the longform videos. This included giving viewers one teaser trailer cutdown of upcoming content, three snackable cutdowns of the longform episodes, and four individualized talent posts recapping their stories for their own followings. Each video included an organic product integration weaved seamlessly into the scenes through the natural comedic expertise of our talent.
Camp Yoshi produced one short form video capturing the behind-the-scenes process of creating the Retreated series. The video was also accompanied by a blog post which was posted to the partner’s O&O site and included as an announcement on their April newsletter. They also provided added value social engagement by reposting five clips of the social cutdowns to their own Instagram page.
Overall, the campaign proved to be an overwhelming success in driving awareness by several performance related standards, with content holistically generating 7.6MM views (68% above expected views) & 114K total engagements. Social media response for the series was overwhelmingly positive with viewers regularly commending the cast’s diversity & performance, quoting memorable lines and funny moments, and even sharing positive sentiments in considering the brand itself.
The talent also posted and reposted content that was outside of their contractual obligations which was a testament to the quality and output of the work and the pride they took in being a part of the series.
The videos also drove considerable lift across all tested brand metrics as well, including the measurement findings below:
