A couple of years ago, there was a feeling that Radox did not stand out from its rivals. While the brand was still well-known and well-liked, it was finding it difficult to cut through the clutter of a competitive, discount-driven sector.
So Radox (which at that time was owned by Sara Lee) developed its new "Be Selfish" positioning in partnership with agency group Engine. Aimed at women with young children, the new strategy was based around the insight that women needed pockets of time away from their family to recharge their batteries. Not surprisingly, bath-time was identified as being one of the key opportunities to escape and relax.
Against that backdrop, Engine-owned PR agency Slice devised a campaign which took the Be Selfish positioning into the digital space. "The first thing we did was have a psychologist called Jenni Trent Hughes talk about the Vesuvius Syndrome, "says Slice PR senior account director Charlie Spencer. The syndrome is typified by pressure building up internally then exploding: for example a stressed woman venting anger or frustration at her family.
All steamed up
Radox then commissioned the bestselling authuor Kathy Lette to write a novella, featuring a central character with the Vesuvius Syndrome. "All Steamed Up" was given away in a waterproof format, perfect for the long baths Radox was encouraging women to take.
The Kathy Lette link up was inspired. Although her novella was hosted on the Radox website, it was also launched on key parent and mummy blogs and website. "We gave them the first chapter, exclusive interviews and images a week before the book was available to order from the website," says Slice's Spencer.
Digital assets
When the book became available to the wider audience, it helped Radox establish a powerful presence online, underlining the strong attachment between Lette and the Radox target market : "One thing which made a difference was to ensure we got digital assets from Kathy," adds Spencer. "She narrated a podcast for us and did some video Q&As."
Slice kept up the momentum by signing DJ Sara Cox for the next phase of activity (early 2010), which also heralded Radox's shift on to Facebook. Cox, who was expecting her third child, travelled the UK on a Double Decker bus - which had been decked out as a health spa and renamed as the Selfish Sanctuary. A few lucky women won the chance to have a pamper day.
Once again, Cox was asked to deliver some digital assets which could be used in the social networking space. By the end of the work, Radox had signed up around 18,000 Facebook fans.
Since then, Radox and its agencies have been working hard to find creative new ways to grow Radox's Facebook numbers. First came a competition to name the next Shower Smoothies variant. By the time the name Island Indulgence had been chosen, the total signed up to the Radox Facebook page was 24,000. Page views were also up by 143%. After this came a more broad-based book giveaway across both Mumsnet and Facebook. With the giveway running through until April, the Facebook count is now nearly 30,000 and is expected to keep rising.
Keeping the audience engaged
The big question, of course, is how to you keep this audience engaged. "We have an editor who works on the site two hours a day, creating a dialogue with the audience," says Spencer. "That has resulted in a very active user base of 17,000+".
From a PR point of view, there's no question that the campaign has reinvigorated the Radox brand's relationship with consumers - and given it stories it can seed out to relevant on and offline beauty and female media. At the same time, it has provided a database for Radox to tap into. "We don't really use this arena for product promotions," stresses Spencer, "but it is great for feedback on products."
Looking ahead, the big news for Radox is that its parent company Sara Lee has been acquired by Unilever. While it's too early to say how that might affecting the overarching brand strategy, Spencer is pretty convinced that social media will have a key role to play in any future PR-based activation.