Sales for gum have been declining for the last 10 years. This has been blamed on the popularity of distracting smartphones during the shopping experience, and the demise of loose change that was usually used to pick up smaller FMCG items. Chewing gum even has the best real estate in the store right by the checkout, but customers were still forgetting to pick some up, even after buying food or drink that might cause bad breath.

With a fresh and clean mouth, you feel ready to take on the world. But there’s a problem. People aren’t remembering to buy gum at the same time that they buy something that gives them bad breath. So, we decided to give consumers an Extra Reminder. The Extra Reminder was a distinct cash register beep that went off every time someone bought a product that is known to cause bad breath. Things like tuna, cigarettes, cheese etc. It proved to be the audio trigger people need to remember to buy gum.

Our target audience was everyday Australians shoppers who were purchasing FMCG goods in convenience stores. Due to the nature of this shopping, customers want to get in and out as fast as they can, and even though our brand has prime real estate by checkout, we were being ignored. Extra Reminder made customers aware of the food and drink items they were purchasing which could cause bad breath by directly targeting the items they were purchasing, giving them a reason to purchase gum.

Partnering with BP, we built the Bad Breath Index®; an algorithm that recognizes bad-breath-causing foods and triggers the alert if scanned. The system recognised and responded to customer buying habits, creating customised reminders by offering different strengths of

gum, based on the type of food or drink purchased. This system was then tailor fitted to store inventories where the Extra Reminder was implemented.

327% sales increase in chewing gum sales seen in stores with the Extra Reminder.

39% increase in awareness.