Digesting what goes into Tums owner Haleon’s health influencer strategy
We caught up with US chief marketing officer Katie Williams as part of The Drum’s Health & Pharma Focus, finding out how brands such as Advil, Sensodyne and Tums are increasingly marketed through influencers to reach younger consumers.
Tums jumped on the much-hyped launch of Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department album
“We’re in the midst of a transformation in how we connect and resonate with consumers,” Katie Williams, the marketing boss behind the largest consumer health company in the world, tells The Drum.
The US CMO of Haleon (formerly known as GSK Consumer Health and comprising brands including Advil, Sensodyne andTums) is all too aware of the challenge to win over younger consumers who, she explains, demand more from health marketing than previous generations.
So, how is she getting them on board? Firstly, she says, “by prioritizing a sophisticated influencer strategy with a more upstream integration of this channel” in its marketing mix.
“We know that younger consumers are leaning more heavily into social media for health information, so we partner with healthcare experts to bring trusted science to consumers in a relevant way.” Haleon recently appointed Brandtech firm Collectively as its principal influencer marketing agency.
Haleon partners with various names, from celebrities to nano influencers to healthcare experts. This mix, Williams says, helps it “authentically communicate both the human impact and the scientific integrity” of its products.
When deciding whether a health category needs experts or can be communicated with a more general influencer, Williams is guided by trends and its own engagement data. For example, when it came to the recent launch of Sensodyne Clinical White, positive consumer reactions toward dental experts led the marketing team to double down on these types of influencers. “They’ve proven invaluable to bolstering consumer trust in the brand, representing our commitment to science.”
On Haleon’s owned channels, Williams is also pushing the boundaries to ensure “our messaging becoming just white noise – consumers know when they’re being marketed at, rather than to.” Her strategy is to both “educate” and “resonate” with people’s everyday lives.
For example, last week, Tums jumped on the much-hyped launch of Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department album by dropping a series of social ads that read ‘The Tortured Tummies Department.’ The Instagram post got over 24,000 likes, one of the highest-liked posts in the brand’s history, Williams says. “These are the types of agile, real-time, social response moments we’re looking to create more of.”
Product innovation
One of the often-neglected Ps in marketing is product. As chief marketing officer, Williams plays a vital role in pushing forward product innovation to draw in younger customers. “Younger consumers continue to push us for, and expect, superior experiences when it comes to self-care,” Williams says. This demographic is asking for more palatable products and tastier flavors, for example.
At Haleon, Williams has collaborated on the development of Emergen-C Crystals, an immune support supplement that doesn’t need water. She is also working on new flavors and textures of Tums and Benefiber inspired by #GutTok. “These would still provide the same fast-acting relief but delivered through a more fun, enhanced experience.”
There is also a sustainability piece, driven again by insight from Haleon’s younger consumers. Here, brands like Centrum and Flonase have better-recycled packaging. “Every innovation, whether a product or service, comes from understanding consumers’ needs.”
How tech is impacting healthcare
Elsewhere, Williams discussed how technology has impacted not just the health industry but her role as a marketer. “The explosion of technology we’ve seen in the last year alone has come with its own navigational challenges from simple questions such as how to incorporate it into our day-to-day to more complex ones like how to do so effectively and ethically,” Williams says.
Advances in tech are helping health marketers improve data and personalization, but as Williams admits, there are ethical questions about the collection and targeting of sensitive information. According to data security firm BakerHostetler, healthcare (including biotech and pharma) is the industry most impacted by data security issues, accounting for nearly 1 in 4 (24%) incidents. So, it’s no wonder marketers are wary about what they are collecting.
“The rapidly changing data and tech landscape that exists today requires marketers to stay informed in real-time on new ways to connect to consumers,” Williams adds. “With the explosive level of available data, we have to find new and novel ways to quickly digest broad-based information and translate it into powerful creative, strategic, and exceptional insights.”
The challenges are worth trying to overcome, though. Williams explains that tech developments can help a business like Haleon better meet customer needs, “making our mission to deliver better everyday health more tangible.”