To promote its new Optic White teeth whitening product, Colgate has kicked off an integrated campaign featuring a sponsorship of Fox8’s Australia’s Next Top Model.
Developed by MEC, the campaign is aimed at driving awareness and trial of Optic White among women aged 18 to 39, and growing the overall whitening category. The centrepiece of the tie-up is an episode of Australia’s Next Top Model based around the product – in one of the challenges, the models compete for the opportunity to become the face of the Optic White print campaign.
Season eight of the show kicked off on Tuesday 9 July. The Optic White episode will air on 20 August, and the winner of the challenge will feature in the print campaign from 26 August. MEC also created 12 additional 90-second videos featuring the model hopefuls.
In developing the strategy, MEC commissioned a study through neurological tracking company Neuro Insight to demonstrate perception of people with whiter teeth in three common scenarios: job interview, social environment and dating.
Neuro-Insight recorded the brain activity of 100 participants exposed to pictures of people with whitened versus unwhitened teeth. It found people with a white smile were 23% more likely to be remembered in a job interview, while in a social environment, a man was 48% more engaged by a woman if she had a white smile.
Tania Caruso, MEC business director on Colgate, said: “Teeth whitening is an under-developed category in Australia. Our challenge was that consumers would need some convincing around whitening products to see the benefits. Backed by the study results and through our strong relationship with MCN and other media partners, we were able to produce a wide-reaching campaign that takes Optic White out of the grocery aisle and places it smack bang in the middle of popular culture.”
The campaign features a YouTube hub and is supported by creative across TV, magazines, online, social media, out-ofhome, point-of-sale and sampling.
This article first appeared in the 12 July 2013 edition of AdNews, in print and on iPad. Click here to subscribe for more news, features and opinion.
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