Practice Areas

Consumer, Health, Interactive

 

Council for Responsible Nutrition
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 and their use. The industry is challenged in its growth by detractors who question the safety and efficacy 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 multi-year campaign were three-fold:

• Create an environment conducive to increasing sales of dietary supplements in the U.S.
• Establish the use of dietary supplements as “mainstream” – not a fringe practice – in America
• Generate positive awareness and media coverage for supplements

 

Solution

Through research, the agency discovered that more than 150 million American adults take dietary supplements as part of a healthy regimen. CRT/tanaka’s creative strategy aimed to “identify, study and celebrate” these individuals – whom we 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:

• A Life … Supplemented” Web site (www.lifesupplemented.org), which includes a “My Wellness Scorecard” – a feature involving a 36-question survey that reveals where respondents fall on the wellness scale (AlphaWELL, WELL, WannabeWELL and OhWELL). The feature also gives 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 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 viral) coverage

 

Results

• In year one of the “Life…supplemented” campaign, CRT/tanaka generated 171 million+ “earned” media impressions in key outlets targeting our Boomer audience, including Prevention, Woman’s Day and Better Homes & Garden’s Web site www.bhg.com
• The campaign garnered another 285 million+ “unearned” online advertising and viral media impressions on sites such as HealthLine.com, WebMD, Hungry Girl and MSN
• In the first eight months the Web site was up, 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 results of the HCP Impact Study importantly reinforced the use of supplements by health care professionals, revealing 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 study revealed that of the 28 percent of physicians who do not use supplements, 62 percent still recommend them to patients