Dramamine Ads Show Up in All the Right Places

TalentZoo.com | Flack Me | Digital Pivot | Beneath the Brand

Archives | Categories

By: Dwayne W. Waite Jr.

With the summer of 2012 officially starting, and gas prices steadily increasing, there is a lot of talk and excitement around the hospitality and tourism sectors. The financial debacle has kept many people firmly at home or picking "staycations" rather than leaving town, and with people generally getting tired of their familiar surroundings, many are feeling the itch to explore. Even AAA came out a month or two ago saying that it expected an increase in traveling due to lower expenses and due to the extended lag of non-travel.

This is part of the reason why Dramamine, the motion sickness medicine, decided to act.

Dramamine was purchased from J&J by Prestige brands in 2011, and hasn't had a national advertising campaign since 2005. That's all about to change.

Prestige Brands has announced a multi-million dollar campaign with the help of NJ-based agency Vision Creative. The print, online, out-of-home, and mobile ads focus more on the excitement of the trip and destination than the sickness.

The creative will also appear in some funky places, too. In the air, US Airways fliers will see ads on the seatback trays. Billboards with similar messaging will be around airports. In showing the robustness of mobile geo-targeting, the campaign will enable banner ads of the brand to appear on smartphones when consumers are around airports, ports, and amusement parks. Other fun spots include the tops of gas pumps and taxis.

Online, Dramamine is running a sweepstakes where the winner can win a weeklong cruise for four.

The goal of the campaign is to keep Dramamine "top of mind" with consumers in order to raise revenue and increase market share. According to the numbers in the article, Dramamine still reigned supreme in its category with a share of 37.1%, with store brands close behind at 22.1%. The numbers did not include sales from Walmart. In all, the motion sickness tablet category is a $53 million industry.

In comparison, Prestige bought Dramamine for $76 million.

Naturally, Prestige wants to see if a full-scale campaign will boost Dramamine's profits and make the purchase worth its while. Right now, if our accounting is correct, the payback for the brand purchase is close to four years, and though that's not a long period to wait, taking initiative and putting the product out there isn't going to hurt.

The billboards will start appearing in Phoenix and San Diego first, followed by Miami, New York, and Dallas closer to the fall.

blog comments powered by Disqus

About the Author

Dwayne W. Waite Jr. is partner and principal at JDW: The Charlotte Agency, a marketing and advertising shop in Charlotte, NC. He enjoys consumer behavior, economics, and football.

Beyond Madison Avenue on