70% of the Belgian population
70% of Belgians have a magnesium deficit, with the majority of them being unaware of this. The demand for magnesium supplements is mainly of the more health-conscious target audience and keeps decreasing every year in Belgium.
How can we generate overall awareness for magnesium deficiency and grow our brand in a market which 2 other brands are dominating?
This brought a huge challenge: how can we increase awareness for magnesium deficiency and link it to the brand EG Magnesium OPTI for all Belgians that are not even aware that they need magnesium to improve their health?
A creative concept to cover personal experiences
How do you explain to over 8 million people that they might suffer from a magnesium deficiency? We could inform them with our magnesium deficiency test on our website, but how can we motivate (tired) people to do this 5min test? Well, by making it recognizable to them. Together with Berlin Creative Studio, we outlined the most frequent moments of tiredness due to magnesium deficiency. On top we went over all targeting possibilities on various media channels to see what’s possible.
This resulted in the creation of 11 related scenarios which were turned into entertaining video ads, linked to specific everyday situations where a magnesium deficiency might manifest. Think of waking up tired, playing padel, or walking your dog.
To build brand recognition across the different commercials, Opti the optimist, our green mascot, was featured as the main protagonist and the memorable slogan, "voelt… ook zo zwaaaaar??” was introduced in all the videos.
Be there when it counts
Pharmaceutical companies typically invest heavily (and almost solely) in big TV campaigns. Our research showed this was also the case for the magnesium market, leaving a strong opportunity to focus on digital video. By doing audience research linked to our scenarios, we expected to reach the majority of our target audience by using popular video platforms like Meta (+-7million), YouTube (+-6.5 million) and TikTok (+-3.5 million).
The people suffering from magnesium deficiency are usually workers/students/parents and these are also the people the most active on these platforms. Here we had a surprise factor as well by choosing these specific channels to advertise for magnesium.
Choosing for digital platforms allowed us to fully leverage the different targeting options per video/scenario. This way we could ensure that each video had the maximum relatability and therefore the optimal impact. Not a small challenge if you want to reach 8 million without feeling generic. After market research taught us that the main players in the market almost solely invested in TV, this gave us a great opportunity to capture a new audience on online channels. We focused on Meta, TikTok & YouTube. The concept with diverse scenarios allowed us to implement a highly targeted media strategy. We leveraged different targeting for each video, ensuring that every content had maximum relatability. For example, commuters were targeted during their commute with a video focused on tiredness experienced during commute, in both the train stations and online. Students saw our mascot struggling to stay awake while studying. This ad was shown during the exam period in train stations and online.
Shoppers saw an ad of feeling tired carrying the shopping bags in shopping streets nearby key pharmacies. The list goes (on with 8 different scenarios).
On Instagram we also let influencers share their personal experiences linked to magnesium deficiency, each having their own story connecting to their audience.
On top, we ran a more general BVOD ad on the biggest channels (VRTMax, VTMGo, GoPlay & RTL Play). This approach significantly boosted our incremental reach, as it allowed us to cover a broad spectrum of our target audience with highly relevant messaging.
Results
Thanks to the green mascot popping up on the ideal moments connecting to the relevant people, the results after 1 month were stunning! We gathered a grand total of 11,637,905 video views, therefore reaching the majority of our target audience.
Even more impressive is that these tired people took the time to fill in our magnesium test on our website 29,744 times (+3,445% YoY). And due to more customer demand in pharmacies, we saw the sales in pharmacies pop up 37% YoY in a declining market!
Jonas Geiregat
| LinkedinThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
