What you need to know:

• Antihistamine brand, Zyrtec, is touting a 23.9 per cent unit sales lift and 24,000 new households now treating children’s allergies after leaning into brand storytelling – literally – producing a story book to raise awareness of kid’s allergies.
• The “enduring and evolving” brand play is a textbook case of finding the consumer insight, then actioning it through an integrated owned, earned and paid campaign complete with mumfluencer, Phoebe Burgess.
• Brand owner Kenvue’s allergy team had gleaned through research that 56 per cent of kids in Australia are likely to suffer from allergies, but only one in five are formally diagnosed. Six in 10 parents aren’t even aware of the term ‘allergic rhinitis’, an umbrella term for allergic reactions in the nose, like hay fever. For Zyrtec marketing manager, Simone Tawadros, it was a big aha: “It was one of those moments where all the ingredients are there, and the insights say there’s a glaringly obvious education gap in parent and guardian understanding of allergic rhinitis in children,” she says.
• Innovation in the Zyrtec product portfolio with chewable formats was another unlock for tapping this under-penetrated category.
• For Tawadros, the level of under-penetration and the size of the opportunity means this “isn’t a flash in the pan type of execution. It can’t be”, she says.
• But even with leadership buy-in, the combination of reach and engagement results has certainly helped cement the work as both a intangible lift on brand, plus tangible contributor to the bottom line.

An authentic mumfluencer, the daily ritual of story time and a drastically under penetrated category: Zyrtec’s decision to go all-in on a printed children’s storybook comes with all the hallmarks of an enduring and evolving brand platform play, says marketing manager in Kenvue’s allergy portfolio, Simone Tawadros.

Zach and Zoe’s Hide and Sneeze storybook was released last September by Zyrtec and agency partner, Publicis Groupe, in partnership with celebrity mum, Phoebe Burgess. Designed to raise awareness of children’s allergies, the narrative took cues from Burgess’ own family experience to shed light on allergic rhinitis, something at least half Australian children are estimated to suffer from. The book was also designed to fit into a relevant and existing moment of connection with children when parents and guardians have less distractions mentally in the day. Offered as a free gift with any Zyrtec purchase, the 80-000 print run was supported by an integrated subsequent media, social, PR and influencer content program.

Results are showing it’s delivered the goods, according to the Zyrtec marketing team. Top figures include recruiting 24,000 new Australian households to treating children’s allergies (+0.2ppt children’s allergy category penetration) and bolstering Zyrtec’s unit sales by 23.9 per cent year-on-year, lifting share by 1.6 per cent in that timeframe. It equally presented fodder for shorter-term reach results, with major media appearances and influencer content chalking up 22.6 million in coverage reach. ‘

Zyrtec is one of the top three household-name brands in the Kenvue portfolio. Others in the stable include Neutrogena, Nicorette, Listerine, Band-Aid and Benadryl.

Brand play: Insight to brand action

Kenvue’s Zyrtec storybook play is a textbook case of consumer insights and macro conditions feeding brand action and creative execution, with the product goods and owned, earned and paid media strategy to back it up. First up were the data points: Kenvue’s allergy team had gleaned through research that 56 per cent of kids in Australia are likely to suffer from allergies, but only one in five are formally diagnosed. Six in 10 parents aren’t even aware of the term ‘allergic rhinitis’.

All data points not to be sneezed at.

“It’s actually almost equal to adults, which for me was a big ‘aha’,” says Tawadros. “It posed an education challenge for Zyrtec. We of course are aiming to drive growth and penetration within the kid’s allergy category as a whole, but we had this tension… 40 per cent of parents and guardians had no clue what actually triggered allergies in kids. It was one of those moments where all the ingredients are there, and the insights say there’s a glaringly obvious education gap in parent and guardian understanding of allergic rhinitis in children.”

Then came the question of who parents would trust to communicate the narrative. Influencers have become an increasingly trusted, mainstream source of information in all manner of categories, and it appears allergy sufferers aren’t immune to their charms either. Kenvue and Publicis Collective arrived at Burgess through a process of vetting against authenticity and credibility, personal experience of having kids with allergies, living in a location where you’re surrounded by allergy triggers (Bowral, NSW), right personality, a history in writing and a healthy dose of celebrity status.

“With parents and trust, there are a lot of considerations with who they look to. We found 40 per cent trust ads, 21 per cent trust the Mum blog, and 70 per cent trust personal experiences shared by other Mums,” explains Tawadros.

“On the other hand, parents take advice from others, or take advice from social media, reviews or from their own parents or past experiences. But children lack the ability to express what’s triggering them. And even then, it gets misdiagnosed,” adds Publicis Collective chief client officer, Helge Gruettke.

Then came identifying the moment where to best cut through and “be clear of the frenetic pace of the day in a parent or guardian’s life”, says Tawadros. Two moments cropped up: Bath and story time.

“For us, story time was super compelling because we were able to share and grab some of that parenting brain space,” she continues. “The hero skew at the time we were looking to drive visibility of was our chewables format, which is indicated for 6+. It’s more school age. Which is why we felt story time was a more relevant connection moment.”

Being under the Therapeutic Goods Administration code, there’s not a lot of direct endorsement of effectiveness information that influencers and Zyrtec as a brand can indulge in. But influencers are an increasing part of the mix, and Tawadros flags another partnership with comedian, Jimmy Rees, who also suffers from allergies, to bring to life the comedic elements of such a condition.

Enduring brand platforms

When it literally comes to freeing up pockets of budget to invest in publishing a children’s book, Gruettke points to the need to build a trusted relationship between agency and brand. Publicis Groupe had been working with Kenvue for three years at this point, through Kenvue’s separation from Johnson & Johnson to become a fully independent company in August 2023.

“There’s a lot of trust that gets built over the years between the agency and client around how do we spend your money effectively and where can we actually decide to shift the working, non-working ratio a little bit differently,” Gruettke says in response. “This is a prime example of that. The brief was not, as you can image, to create a nighttime book.

“The upfront investment to go out and print something? Yes, all that money could have gone elsewhere. For me from an agency perspective, I saw this as one of those great examples of trying something different. Let’s go all in on an insight, try and build something that is different to your normal reach campaign. Let’s not completely forget about reach, as we do that as well, but we will have to make choices – because it’s not like we have infinite budget.

“That’s where I just love the results of this. It creates a nice buzz because it’s shortlisted for awards. But it’s also obviously then driven the business and created a platform we can work off this year, next year.”

The book was supported by a Kids Go Live and PR campaign in September, at the start of the spring season when allergies are most apparent and in the spotlight, which incorporated a campaign launch including a Q&A with Burgess.

Tawadros meanwhile claims to have secured “overwhelming support” from the leadership team to get this over the line.

“With anything we do here at Kenvue, we do try to ensure it is an enduring platform. That’s a really good starting point… we’re being encouraged in influencer interactions if they can be multi-year to actually develop the memory structure, so that’s in the back of our minds and it’s part of the process. They could see we were able to have a platform such as story time as an enduring and evolving way for us to be able to do different things communicating an education-driven message,” she says.

“Due to the sheer under penetration of this category and the opportunity that lies there, this isn’t a flash in the pan type of execution. It can’t be. We’ve got such a big job to do over many years. There was very much category thought leadership ambition with this. That’s what is driving the opportunity for us to say ok, story time was year one, what does year two look like? Year three? Are there multiple chapters? Does Zach grow up?”

Having buy-in to such a solid brand platform also meant there was no need to itemise every aspect of the program on a three-year horizon, Tawadros says.  

“There are obviously lots of opportunities, but it never needed to be detailed as to what each year looked like because we have to allow for that creative expertise, for the new news, new insights to shape what each year might look like,” she says. “We have centred it that way. Initial investment to get a book done was year one. But if we’ve got a story, or the mechanics or different triggers or different settings and different ways of thinking, we’re then able to build on it, and you’re not necessarily starting from scratch each year. You have a good base to build on an evolve.”

Tawadros is coy about what’s coming this September, but says the team “are still leaning on insights, connection and moments”. “That will never change,” she says. “That enduring platform will live on and show up in ways – we hope – that surprise, excite and delight.”