Excedrin, back from a yearlong product recall needed to recapture its loyal fan base, and create significant buzz around its return to shelf.

To drive and sustain excitement, a three-staged campaign—relying heavily on social media—was launched to:

1. Alert ardent Facebook fans about the long awaited return of product to shelf; 2. Recognize and reward brand loyalists who had demonstrated extraordinary patience while awaiting the return of their favorite headache medication; and 3. Engage a larger segment of Excedrin users—via a whimsical sweepstake—who needed to be drawn into the celebration of the brand’s return to market.

Q1 & Q2 2013 : We executed a three-part “surprise and delight” plan to re-connect with loyalists and kick-start the return of product to shelf.

First, as Facebook naturally became a place for people to ask questions about product availability, we began getting the word out, answering key needs and concerns.

Next, we worked with the full inter-agency team to distribute over 100,000 gift packs in a 5-day, Facebook only give-away.

Finally, the “Who Deserves Excedrin The Most?” sweepstakes got people voting for different headache suffering personae, in a series of humorous face offs. Winners received vacations to “headache-free” destinations.

This program leveraged the insight that while headache sufferers do not like to talk about their symptoms, they do love to talk about the situations that cause them. Placements were contextual; e.g. the headaches suffered by “Technology Crashers” were displayed on business technology sites and similar sections of digital newspapers.

During Phase 1 of the campaign, the “Shipping Now” post announcing Excedrin returning to retail outlets received over 50K “Likes” and hundreds of shares.

The product give-away was an enormous success—102,000 gift packs were distributed in 5 days in an average of 83 minutes per day—despite absence of paid media.

There were 241,000 new Facebook likes, a 53% voluntary opt-in rate to eCRM—with Excedrin becoming the #1 OTC brand page on Facebook with over 500,000 fans. Share of voice vs. competitors for the week: a 5X lift in .com traffic and a 5X lift in coupon requests as well.

Engagement with the “Who Deserves Excedrin the Most” sweepstakes was equally high, with over 561,000 game plays from nearly 35,000 participants. Our Facebook fan base grew by an additional 36,000 people, and we added over 15,000 people to our eCRM database—an extraordinary 44% opt-in rate.