Shape the constipation category and give it a voice.

Dulcolax is leading the global laxatives market, celebrated and trusted in over

90 countries across the world.

But in recent times we realized something critical: the whole laxative category

was losing penetration with around 49% of constipation sufferers avoiding to

treat with laxatives. And we shouldn’t be surprised by that.

We saw it, 70% are embarrassed to talk about their constipation while 1 in 5

British people feel embarrassed talking about it to their doctor. So yes, talking

about constipation is embarrassing, therefore people hardly do it. And when no

one talks about something it’s when that something can become a taboo, giving

place to confusion, low understanding, and misconceptions around that topic.

From here, if we wanted to start breaking the constipation taboo, the

campaign's objective was clear: spark the conversation around the problem and educate around constipation.

Dulcolax turns the ‘S’ word on X into a conversation about constipation to

ignite poop talk on social media.

Even if people are embarrassed to talk about their gut health, sh*t is all over X.

It was just waiting to be rescued and leveraged for a greater good.

The intention was clear: to conquer the main social media platform for

conversations. We hacked the conversations on X with a high presence of the

“S” word to turn them in our favor.

No matter what the content was, we responded the users with useful

information about constipation and tons of humor, turning the context on its

head and relating it directly to gut health.

This way, we would own the space where millions of Brits share their interests,

to educate around constipation and arm users with knowledge that would bring them more confidence to talk about it.

A conversation that everyone avoided and ended up taking over X

The constipation taboo was a huge enemy that was preventing us from growing

the category and growing Dulcolax’s penetration among constipation users. So,

we understood we had to raise the voice and spread the word around

constipation, but we had to make it in a way that would draw attention and

generate interest.

And all started with the observation of a very interesting fact. In the UK: 1 in 13

tweets contain a cuss word. But here comes the striking thing: ‘Shit’ is the

second most popular. So, British people might not feel comfortable talking about

their toilet and poo problems, but truth is poo is spread all over X.

So the opportunity was evident: take advantage of the huge number of tweets

on X using the “S” word and own those conversations to spark the conversation around constipation.

Hacking one of the big social media platforms in the UK meant going beyond

just tracking the tweets and answering them, we wanted to take advantage of

the full potential the media offered and even go beyond it...

First, we did a social listening to track every tweet containing the “S” word and

chose the best ones.

Then we surprised users by replying to their tweets, educating them around

constipation and sparking poop talk. Our hashtag? #TalkingPoopIsGood.

Last but not least, we took those tweets to the streets and used OOH channels

to reach even more people and encourage them to keep talking poop beyond social media.

With “Talking Poop” we didn’t only manage to spark the conversation around

the constipation, but also improved brand love metrics and interest towards

Dulcolax

• We reached 25M Impressions of #TalkingPoopIsGood.

• We reached a 4.29% Organic engagement rate (vs. 1.05% benchmark).

• We achieved 77% positive brand sentiment.

• We increased the number of Dulcolax UK followers by 20% during the

campaign period.

• 6% Sales increase during the campaign.