Johnson and Johnson’s Bactidol is an oral antiseptic gargling solution that offers 12-hour protection from sore throat. The challenge was to get people to experience this long lasting benefit first hand.

But how do you get people excited about trying such a clinical and even inconvenient product? Much more get them to stay for 12 hours to test it? By staging a product demo that was hinged on Filipinos love for singing.

Introducing the Bactidol 12-hour Sing-a-thon: the longest karaoke session the Philippines had ever seen. (Probably the longest live product demo the world had ever seen too.)

The premise was simple: 12-hour protection from sore throat means 12 hours of nonstop singing.

We partnered with Center Stage, the largest karaoke chain in the Philippines. Announcements on radio, TV, Twitter and Facebook invited people to sign up. In less than two days, all slots have been filled, with hundreds of people still on the waiting list.

Basically, it was a pharmaceutical product demo that people demanded and begged to participate in.

When the big day came, there was no holding the participants back. They began by gargling with Bactidol and sang their hearts out for 12 straight hours.

At the end of 12 hours, we had heard a total of 10,470 karaoke hits belted out and 0 sore throat.

Each and every person became a living testament to Bactidol’s effectiveness.

More importantly, Bactidol hit the high notes in terms of shares. Market shares soared to 23.4% while pharmacy shares went up to 77.3%, marking an all-time high in the history of the brand.

That’s how we got people to sing praise about Bactidol and its little product demo.

To best announce Bactidol’s product demo, we marketed it as the longest karaoke session in the Philippines and called it “The 12-hour Sing-a-thon.”

To further gain credibility, we tapped Center Stage, the country’s largest karaoke chain, as our partner and venues for the event.

To promote the live product demo and generate excitement, we got the country’s top radio DJs to invite their listeners to join in on the fun. We filled Facebook and Twitter with online blasts, recruiting excited volunteers. We also tapped MYX, the Philippines’ premier music channel to create buzz about our event as well.

On the event day itself, we generated even more excitement by getting famous local musicians to invade the karaoke rooms, surprise the participants and sing with them. Extensive media and press coverage was visible all throughout. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were filled with content from the participants themselves, letting everyone know that they were having so much fun at the Bactidol 12-hour Sing-a-thon.

The event was fully booked in less than two days, with more than a thousand people still on the waiting list.

On the week of the announcement, Bactidol mentions went up by 121%.

The excitement was not contained within the venue. The singers shared their experience over Facebook and Twitter, throughout the day, further increasing our share of voice.

At the end of 12 hours, we had heard 10,470 songs and zero sore throat.

Most importantly, Bactidol hit the high notes in terms of shares. Market shares soared to 23.4% while pharmacy shares went up to 77.3%, marking an all-time high in the history of the brand.