More than ever, Irish consumers are opting for Irish made brands, with provenance and supporting local key considerations when shopping*. Panadol is a global brand and whilst pain relief brands can look to purely communicate their product efficacy there is limited point of difference in the communications to consumers.
So, building brand power and mental availability at the time of purchase is key. The ace up Panadol’s sleeve, is that it is made in Ireland, a fact that makes Irish people proud. This was something to leverage and gain those important inches in competitive advantage, giving consumers a reason to choose the Panadol Extra brand over others.
Using Irish broadcaster RTÉ and their high-reaching media platforms, we created a campaign that would resonate with consumers on an emotive level and root the brand in the local community. The centrepiece was a sponsorship of RTÉ’s Nationwide TV programme, which highlights local human-interest stories across the country. This was further strengthened by an activation programme across digital, content, spot and radio to drive engagement to a dedicated hub on RTÉ.ie and launch the ‘Homegrown Heroes’ campaign.
Taking its cues from the familiar stories regularly told on Nationwide, the strategy was to position Homegrown Hero stories alongside Panadol Extra (another homegrown hero!). The content, narrated by the heroes themselves, saw incredible community stories come to life across the partnership.
During the partnership, we saw an uplift across all key sponsorship metrics, an increase in sales and a renewal of the activity into 2021.
*source: Core Research 2020/ MMR 2018
