Council for Responsible Nutrition

CRT/tanaka has worked with the Council for Responsible Nutrition, the leading trade association representing dietary supplement manufacturers and ingredient suppliers, to develop and implement a consumer wellness education campaign positioning nutritional supplements as part of an ongoing health and wellness regimen. To support the “Life…supplemented” campaign, CRT/tanaka created a new Web site with an interactive “My Wellness Scorecard” feature to give respondents feedback on their overall health and wellness and information on how to incorporate supplements into their personal regimen. In Years I and II of the campaign, the site has attracted more than 190,000 unique visitors and more than 28,000 scorecards have been completed. Media relations activity has generated more than 2,471 media hits, reaching an estimated total audience in excess of 368 million. Placements have appeared in key outlets such as Prevention, Woman’s Day, Real Simple and Better Homes & Garden’s Web site bhg.com.

LIFE…SUPPLEMENTED CAMPAIGN

Challenge

The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), based in Washington, D.C., is the leading trade association for the dietary supplement industry, known for its science-based approach to supplements/use. The industry is challenged in its growth by detractors who question the safety, efficacy and cost of supplements, including media who jump on every negative or inconclusive study, however flawed.

CRT/tanaka’s PR objectives on behalf of CRN in a multiyear campaign were three-fold:

• Create an environment conducive to increasing sales of dietary supplements in the United States.
• Establish the use of dietary supplements as “mainstream” – not a fringe practice – in America.
• Generate positive awareness and media coverage for supplements to offset the drumbeat of negative stories about these products.

Solution

Through research, the agency discovered that more than 150 million American adults take dietary supplements as part of an ongoing health and wellness regimen. CRT/tanaka’s creative strategy aimed to “identify, study and celebrate” these individuals – whom the agency coined the “Wellness Cohort” for being proactive about their health and wellness – and to leverage what was already an existing, powerful endorsement of supplements by “mainstream” Americans.

The agency’s recommended strategy also involved educating consumers about the responsible use of supplements while helping to simplify and personalize the use of these products – all points that our research revealed were obstacles to greater supplement use. Finally, CRT/tanaka recommended wrapping the discussion of supplements in the appealing and growing “culture of wellness” movement.

The resulting “Life…supplemented” campaign developed and implemented by CRT/tanaka involved a consumer focused effort positioning supplements as one of the “three pillars” of health and wellness, along with healthy eating and exercise. Core elements of the “Life…supplemented” campaign included:

• Lifesupplemented.org Web site which includes “My Wellness Scorecard” – a feature involving a 36-question survey that reveals where respondents fall on the wellness scale (AlphaWELL, WELL, WannabeWELL and OhWELL). When completed, the scorecard also provides feedback on how respondents fare against each of the “three pillars” of health and wellness, along with recommendations for specific supplements that might be helpful to them.
• Healthcare Professionals (HCP) Impact Study on the personal use of supplements by physicians and nurses and their recommendations to patients of such products.
• Media campaign involving “earned” (print and electronic media relations) and “unearned” (online advertising and e-newsletters) coverage communicating messages about supplements as one of the “three pillars” of health and the personal use and recommendation of supplements by physicians.

Results

• In year one of the “Life…supplemented” campaign, CRT/tanaka generated more than 71 million “earned” media impressions in key outlets targeting our Boomer audience, including Prevention, Woman’s Day and Better Homes & Gardens’ Web site, bhg.com.
• The campaign garnered more than 285 million impressions from “unearned” online advertising and e-newsletters involving sites such as HealthLine.com, WebMD, Hungry Girl and MSN.

In the first eight months the “Life…supplemented” Web site was live, it attracted 60,000 unique visitors and more than 10,000 scorecards were completed. Completed scorecards interestingly revealed that only 1 percent of

• Americans are AlphaWELLS who are doing nearly everything right in being proactive about their health and wellness. Most of us are “WELLS” (36 percent) and “WannabeWELLS” (43 percent), while 20 percent of Americans are “OhWELLS.” The majority of Americans, it appears, could use some help in supplementing their health and wellness habits.
• The HCP Impact Study, importantly, revealed the use of supplements by health care professionals, indicating that 72 percent of physicians and 89 percent of nurses personally take dietary supplements. This is a higher percentage than even the 68 percent of American adults who report taking these products. Moreover, the HCP Impact Study revealed that of the 28 percent of physicians who do not use supplements, 62 percent still recommend them to patients. The news that “doctors take and recommend supplements” was a key message of our media coverage.