The Client
Garden of Life Canada produces high-quality supplements and health products made exclusively from real food ingredients.
The Challenge
Garden of Life’s Poopowerment campaign was a controversial hit in the US, how do we develop and employ a new suite of creative for a Canadian audience?
In our previous engagement with Garden of Life Canada, we successfully positioned their Collagen line as the go-to products for premium, traceable collagen that powers beauty from the inside. In our second collaboration with the brand, we were given a decidedly… funnier mandate. It’s OK to say poop! Even more, it’s not shameful to invest in your gut health — it’s actually an oft-neglected but critical piece of your overall well-being. Creating our own viral man-on-the-street content, hundreds of eye-catching transit ads, a huge spread of high-performing digital ads and more, our fellow Canucks sure took notice to the tune of a 827% increase in direct-to-consumer sales.
The Objectives
1
Adapt an existing viral campaign.
Established campaign, brand new creative. Developing a fresh strategy equipped with unconventional messaging and content.
2
Connect with audiences, authentically.
Viral videos, 100 influencer partnerships, and humourous out-of-home placements. Creating seriously memorable ads.
3
Grow sales online and in-store.
Connecting consumers with the missing piece in their self-care routine via online sales and local stores.
OUR APPROACH
Out-of-Home |
200 posters on Go Trains in Toronto and the GTA cheekily asked riders, “Wishing you went before leaving home?” pulling 2.5 million impressions in 4 weeks. In public bathrooms in Vancouver and Toronto, 109 stall and 47 beside mirror posters let folks know they could “stay regular” with Dr. Formulated Probiotics. Finally, Lamar transit ads tastefully suggesting a woman on the toilet commiserated with commuters, saying “Nobody likes delays.”
Design |
Design championed big, legible taglines and attention-grabbing stills from Poopowerment commercial spots. Our team peppered ads with product box renders as clear as you’d see them on the shelf, tying the product’s signature vivid pink and yellow into nearly all creative.
Copywriting |
You can just say “poop”! Copy led with bold comedic messaging around ridding pooping of its taboo. Key original campaign taglines like, “Pooping is powerful” and “Become a more ‘regular’ human” were used, layered in with topical new lines like “Inflation shouldn’t describe your gut” and “The bathroom shouldn’t be a scary place”. Additional copy provided educational content on improving your gut health, and how Dr. Formulated fits into that routine.
Influencers & Content |
We sent outreach to over 400 Canadian micro-influencers in our target demographics, registering 100 of them for collaboration. These influencers were engaged in an in-kind agreement, receiving gifted product and turning out organic content to their followers that amassed just under a million impressions. As part of our strategy, paid influencers with huge local followings created viral clips interviewing people on the streets of Vancouver about their… bathroom habits. These videos were used in paid digital ads, outperforming more “traditional” creative, and demonstrating yet again how colloquial, UGC-style content still reigns supreme online.
Performance Marketing |
Between Google, Meta, TikTok, Spotify, Youtube, Amazon and Pinterest ads, the presence of Dr. Forumlated Probiotics online was unmissable. The team was constantly tweaking and optimizing content, weaving in increased UGC-style creative. Our Facebook remarketing campaign picked up a click-through rate (CTR) of 4.49%, compared to the average Facebook ad CTR of 0.90%, and our Google search ads a CTR of 6.8% compared to an average of 3.17%.
