Not every brand manager has the stomach to gut the TV and print budget of a venerable consumer brand, but Pepto Bismol’s did.
In July, the Procter & Gamble brand, known as an elixir for upset stomachs, reversed the ratio of its ad spending. Previously, 80% to 90% of its budget went toward traditional media; now that number has been cut to 10% to 20%. Most of the rest will go toward digital media.
That meant a new Facebook Page, a Twitter feed and, most recently, web videos featuring Ken “The Hangover” Jeong. The latter, created by Publicis New York and Funny or Die, show Jeong at the pit of a man’s stomach spraying the pink liquid on some recently ingested cookies.
The emphasis on the brand’s iconic color was no accident; the reason the brand shifted course was that social media conversations about the brand tended to refer to “Pepto Bismol pink,” says Kristen Stutz, assistant brand manager on Pepto. The other conversations were about over-indulgence, which the brand capitalized on with a sponsorship of Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4. The brand is spending the bulk of its traditional media budget this month with TV versions of the Jeong ad.
The results? The company claims its online buzz jumped 200% year-over-year since the strategy switch, and sales and volume rose 7% for July, August and November. Those results were “atypical” and the “best results Pepto has seen in years,” says spokesperson Elizabeth Ming.
While not many P&G brands have gone as big into social media, Nathan Fox, the brand manager of Pepto, says one Procter brand was an obvious influence: Old Spice, whose “Smell like a man, man” video has been viewed more than 25 million times on YouTube, creating buzz the brand hadn’t had in generations. Next up, Fox says that there will be two or three more “indulgence occasions” between New Year’s and July 4 that Pepto will attempt to turn into social media events. Fox declined to say what those occasions were, for competitive reasons.
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