Being an over-the-counter medical product, there’s understandably many compliance hurdles to overcome with promoting a product such as Voltarol. But together, we have been able to work collaboratively with the team at GSK and ITV to create a first in this area that is rooted in real audience insight from the ITV Village panel. Chris Priest, Managing Partner, platform GSK (Publicis Media)

The Joy of Movement with Voltarol and ITV

Summary

Voltarol already enjoyed huge brand awareness as a product that relieves back and joint pain, but the ambition for 2020 was to convert more of that awareness into consideration.


ITV and Publicis Media’s Platform GSK wanted to change the script for the brand in 2020 and create more relevant messaging. By listening first to a core daytime TV audience - we used their insights, emotions and opinions of joint pain to create truly relevant, compelling content, to help encourage greater action.

 

The business challenge? To drive greater consideration for Voltarol.

 

The ITV insight:

We know our audience want to move more and sit less. So we engaged with our very own panel of viewers to ask them about pain and movement, and found that *80% of those ITV Village members surveyed had suffered from back or joint pain in the past 12 months.  Viewers said they missed the simplest of pleasures; walking, visiting places in the UK, playing with grandchildren and sport. (ITV Village members surveyed were 45 and over)

*This figure was taken from the poll posted to ITV Village/Base Total (n=593)

The Idea:

In the first ever cross daytime partnership, ITV daytime will launch a series of branded content films supporting Voltarol’s ambition to listen to their audience and try to understand what it means for them to rediscover ‘The Joy of Movement’. 


Presented by Dee Thresher Jones, yoga and fitness professional, ITV will be using real-life insights and stories from ITV viewers.  
We gauged the emotions and opinions of the daytime ITV audience around joint and back pain, heard inspirational stories about how they have overcome pain and improved their lives, and developed from this relevant, compelling content to sit within our commercial airtime, embedded within the daytime schedule.

 

Bringing the campaign to life:

Our very own ITV daytime editorial team led the creative and production process, whilst also designing and building a bespoke set for Voltarol with the look and feel of an ITV show.

With Dee Thresher Jones presenting, we invited three real life ITV viewers to be interviewed by Dee and discuss the important role exercise plays in their lives to help manage pain.

Three x 60” VT’s were created showcasing each viewer’s story, to run in and around the daytime schedule on a weekly basis. We also have a supporting digital and social package across the This Morning and Lorraine sites to boost the campaign’s reach.

Voltarol
Voltarol 3
Voltarol

Our top 3 takeouts:

  • ITV and the team at Voltarol, in partnership with Publicis' platform GSK managed to navigate and overcome the many issues around getting a pain relief product over the line and compliance ready. This was achieved by working collaboratively with a really engaged and passionate client, who believed in the benefit of the partnership and wanted to find a new way to drive consideration for the brand.

  • Not only did we navigate a compliance minefield, we also managed to create a campaign during a pandemic, and make it totally relevant in the current climate – reflective of the viewers ‘new normal’ with UGC content and social distancing built into the creative!

  • This campaign is deeply rooted in audience research, which wrote the script for ‘The Joy of Movement with Voltarol and ITV’. Gaining viewers insights prior to building the creative is a fantastic way to shape and frame partnerships in the future.

Through previous Voltarol campaigns, we have strived to raise brand awareness by harnessing the Joy of Movement, but we’ve realised there’s a need to drive brand consideration even further. Rather than repeating the same message, Voltarol really wants to understand the experiences of 45+ adults’ back and joint pain, how it makes them feel and how it impacts their lives to help us work out what support they need in order to make authentic content based on real life stories. Clodagh Hennessy, Voltarol Brand Manger UK & Ireland, GSK Consumer Healthcare

Voltarol Joint Pain Relief 2.32% Gel contains diclofenac diethylammonium. Always read the label.

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