A china shop of objectives, smashed

the challenge

Covonia is a traditional adult cough medicine that doesn’t pull any punches. This attitude has allowed us to help make it the No.2 brand in the category.

Building on this success, we needed a brand refresh campaign that would creatively and strategically out-perform Covonia’s big-spending competitors.

We had to harness what people already love about the brand and deliver a compelling message during peak cold and flu season.

our approach

Our research demonstrated that consumers buy Covonia because they value a powerful, fast-acting cough remedy that lets them get on with business.

So instead of talking about effectiveness like all our competitors, we zeroed in on this bullish attitude of power and strength, the Covonian Spirit, in a darker, meaner embodiment of the brand.

In October, as winter colds and coughs reared their heads, we teased the new campaign, emphasising Covonia’s no-nonsense attitude, delivering Covonian Spirit and interacting with consumers in real-time on social channels through fun, disruptive and unexpected snapshots of content.

Then, in November, we fully unleashed the campaign on prime-time TV, linking with social and online channels to drive brand awareness and challenge people to ‘Feel the Power.

commercial success

Across the first eight weeks of the campaign, Covonia out-performed every other brand on the market. Sales were up by 25% against the same period the previous year, boosting market share by 2% during that period.

And that’s not all, the bold use of social took home trophies for Best Social Media Campaign at the OTC Marketing Awards and Digital Impact Awards. And our team's quick thinking scored a viral hit with their 'Mrs May, Try Covonia' video (scroll above to see), picking up a Roses Creative Gold award in the process.