33RD EUROPEAN CHC CONFERENCE AWARD WINNERS

GLOBAL: We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 Nicholas Hall Group Awards, which were presented at our 33rd European CHC Conference:

Colin Borg Creative Awards

• 1st Buscopan (Sanofi)
• 2nd Gynoxin (Recordati)
• 3rd Tadalafil Maxigra (Polpharma)

European New Product of the Year

• 1st Dorminox (Polpharma)
• 2nd Allevia (Sanofi)
• 3rd Daktarin Powder Spray (J&J Consumer Health)

^{Sanofi’s US Allegra campaign, “Live Your Greatness”, recognised in Worldwide Marketing Awards}

Worldwide Marketing Awards 

• 1st Fisiocrem (Uriach) 
• 2nd Allegra (Sanofi)
• 3rd place presenter Eye Mo (Combiphar)

Special Achievement Award      

• Yvan Vindevogel The founder of Damier Group Omega Pharma, Alpha Pharma (now Fagron), Vemedia Pharma (now Cooper Consumer Health) and Vision Healthcare is a well-known, much respected figure in the global CHC industry and a long-time friend of The Nicholas Hall Group of Companies. Currently, he is the Executive Chairman (ex-CEO) of Vision Consumer Health and Chairman of Cooper Consumer Health.

If you missed last week’s 33rd European CHC Conference, you can still purchase a recording of the event. Plus, we are delighted to announce that Nicholas will return to New Jersey to host our regional North American CHC Conference, taking place on 13-14 September! Contact elizabeth.bernos@NicholasHall.com to register your interest and be the first to find out more, or to discuss recording purchase options.

Female-oriented A+P dominates Nicholas Hall’s APAC Awards

CHC Insight’s Senior Editor, Nicola Allan, summarises the Creative Marketing Award winners from last week’s Nicholas Hall’s APAC e-Conference:

• Winner: Kalbe Consumer Health’s Mixagrip in Indonesia

The growth-driving campaign for Indonesia’s No.1 OTC systemic cold & flu remedy was centred around the idea that work and family pressures, climate issues and the pandemic make the “sandwich generation” tired and susceptible to illness but they cannot afford to miss a day of work. This led to the #AntiSkipHari (“No Skip Days”) initiative, which began with TV ads for Mixagrip and was expanded – in collaboration with creative company Ideacultura – with a digital video that recognises the pressure of daily responsibilities, plus offline marketing including posters on commuter trains and murals created by local artists. Kalbe’s goals were to help consumers avoid having to take time off work through illness, dispel the belief that cough & cold remedies cause drowsiness and fight back in a competitive category where rival brands focus only on TV and digital marketing

• 2nd place: ZP Therapeutics campaign for Physiogel in the Philippines

In 2020, a year of reset and self-care owing to the onset of Covid-19, ZP Therapeutics revived Physiogel following a hiatus from the spotlight. A digital campaign shared the message that only Physiogel contains BioMimic Technology to strengthen sensitive skin and make it soft, which led to the concept of “Strength in Softness”, a celebration of the gentle strength that women possess. From this, the Physiogel sisterhood (SiS) emerged including Strong Skin Stories sessions on Facebook Live featuring influencers and skin care experts. In 2022, the campaign was expanded with the SiS Days Out programme, where women who donated empty skin care bottles to be recycled were given tickets to free Physiogel wellness & pampering events. These strategies led to consumer reach far exceeding expectations and an above-average brand engagement rate

• 3rd place: Sanofi’s Ostelin in Australia

Australia’s dominant vitamin D brand was supported by “Ostelin Project Strong”, a campaign based on the idea that “Strong isn’t what a woman does. It’s who we are”. Sanofi partnered with visual media company Getty Images to showcase hundreds of photos of women that show a broad interpretation of women’s strength with the aim of enticing the younger generation and encouraging them to think about bone health without disenchanting the core 55+ target audience. Ostelin Project Strong, which boosted brand sales and share, also partnered with the 100 Women charity to support its mission of empowering women in various aspects of life

Nicholas Hall Writes: The Awards were of a very high standard and since we added the 5-minute case studies from companies showcasing their campaigns, the number and quality of entries have increased every year. We shortlisted four entries for online voting by delegates, not including the Special Award winner, Bayer China’s Canesten. The three campaigns shown above were worthy winners, but I’m going to give a special shout-out to a non-winner, Sanofi Korea’s Dulcolax for “K-Poop Star”. The case study showed a 360° campaign that attempts to break the taboo of constipation. Sadly we weren’t shown Dulcolax’s Tik Tok digital ads, which are some of the best I’ve ever seen, and absolutely in line with K-Pop culture as a way of reaching a younger target audience. Turning K-Pop into K-Poop is just brilliant.

Put your campaigns in the spotlight when you enter for our CHC Marketing Awards, to be presented during Nicholas Hall’s 33rd European CHC Conference in London on 19-21 April. For more information on entry criteria, or to book your place at this conference and save with the early bird booking discount, please contact elizabeth.bernos@NicholasHall.com.

Nicholas Hall’s 2022 Marketing Awards

Nicholas Hall’s 32nd European CHC Conference took place last week in Athens, and below are the winners of this year’s awards for marketing and innovation in the consumer healthcare industry.

For the Colin Borg European Marketing Award, the top three awarded were as follows:

1st Place: Procto-Glyvenol from Recordati
2nd Place: Otrivin from GSK
3rd Place: Enandol from Menarini

The Winners of the Worldwide Marketing Award were as follows:

1st Place: Xyzal from Sanofi
2nd Place: Eno from GSK
3rd Place: Doril Enxaqueca from Hypera

We finally gave a Special Achievement Award to HRA Pharma (now owned by Perrigo) for Hana, with an honourable mention to Maxwellia’s Lovima, which has the same ingredient as Hana. For this award we celebrated the 360 degree marketing campaign run by HRA for Hana.

Nicholas Hall’s Touchpoints: “The Athens conference … has been a very special meeting; as well as the high level of content and great foresights shared, just to be together as a community will remain fresh in our memories for months and years to come.

The awards we presented this year were particularly welcome as they celebrate achievements made under the extreme circumstances of the pandemic. Not least, we presented a Special Achievement Award for only the 7th time in the almost 35 years of holding events. Three of these awards were given to individuals who made outstanding contributions to the industry, and three to marketers of truly significant new brands. It was in this tradition that we presented the 7th Special Achievement Award to HRA for the launch of Hana, the world’s first OTC daily oral contraceptive supported with 360° marketing support. An honourable mention was given to Maxwellia’s Lovima.

The hope and expectation is that these two new brands will trailblaze a new CHC category, which is vital as our market goes forward. If you look at the DB6 forecasts (see this week’s Dashboard infographic) – growth at 2021 levels is unlikely to be sustained. The only way to put us onto a higher trajectory will be to launch more significant new products and entice increasingly large numbers of consumers to participate in the self-care revolution. Hana is a superb example of how this can be achieved.“

We have now released DB6 forecasts to 2026 & 2031, following the recent publication of our year-end 2021 data. Arrange a demo to take a look for yourself, exploring the expanded channels dataset, which now includes internet & mail order, direct sales and CBD. DB6 offers over 150,000 pieces of data, with more than 30,000 records covering 13,000+ brands and 3,000 companies across 63 countries. To find out more, or to set up a free demo, please contact kate.fieldingsmith@NicholasHall.com.  

Nicholas Hall’s Closing Speech at 4th Asia Pacific Conference

Nicholas Hall’s 4th Asia-Pacific Conference has just taken place in Singapore, which included the APAC Consumer Healthcare Awards, an opportunity to recognise innovation in Asia-Pacific’s OTC industry that produced the following winners:

Asia-Pacific Creativity in Consumer Healthcare Award

Panadol 1st

Systane 2nd

Bactidol 3rd

Worldwide Digital in Consumer Healthcare Award

Insto 1st

OBH 2nd

APAC New Product of the Year in Consumer Healthcare Award 

Scotts DHA Gummies 1st

Dimetapp Ultra Plus 2nd

As Nicholas Hall made clear in his closing speech, which you can watch in full above, the high number of companies supporting their awards entries with passionate case studies was an encouraging sign in an OTC industry currently undergoing huge disruption. Some of the uncertainty is emanating from the renewed focus on M&A activity.

Nicholas Hall pointed to the uncertain future ahead of us, arguing that there are now no guaranteed business models for OTC companies. That said, he believes that brands will survive, as long as marketers and product managers “feed and water them” and also convey real emotional benefits to consumers.

Though the OTC industry is currently experiencing poor rates of growth across the world – with the exception of some markets like Vietnam – Nicholas Hall remains positive for the future, insisting on the need for OTC marketers to constantly refresh their portfolios, while also engaging more with the digital world. Now more than ever, the global OTC industry is desperate for continuity and innovation.

Following on from the Asia-Pacific Consumer Healthcare Awards Ceremony at our Singapore Conference, we now look ahead to our 2018 European Marketing Awards! Click here for more details on the awards for which you can enter. With entries closing on 1st February, please contact jennifer.odonnell@NicholasHall.com to find out about entry criteria or to book your place at the conference now!

Live life to the max… with OTCs

A recent CVS pharmacy survey has shown that over a quarter of Americans who get a flu shot every year or are planning to get one this year (60% of all respondents) cited the possibility of missing out on important life events such as birthdays and family gatherings as the reason for doing so.

While recent high unemployment in Southern Europe has led many cold & flu marketers to underline the importance of not skipping work through illness, not missing out on the good times and living life to the max is just as consistent a theme in European OTC ads as in the US.

Nicholas Hall’s Worldwide Marketing Award Winner way back in 2012 was Reckitt Benckiser, for its Don’t Lose A Day campaign backing Lemsip, Strepsils and Meltus brands, which highlighted the enjoyment of everyday activities unabated by cold & flu, from Tuesday dance classes to Friday night dates.

More recently, RB backed its Lemsip Cough Max entry with UK ads showing a mountain climber unable to make it to the summit owing cough, only to be boosted to the top with the aid of the Lemsip remedy.

Ricola used a slightly more surreal angle on the theme with its global Chrüterchraft (literally “the power of herbs”) campaign last year – also shown in the US – featuring naked ramblers and Nordic opera singers to emphasise Ricola’s ability to refresh, soothe, liberate and inspire.

Bayer’s more low-key TV ads for Aspirin Complex in 2014 leant on a Forsa survey showing that most Germans preferred to stay in bed when suffering from cold & flu, with the ads featuring a man miserably wandering around town in a duvet, featuring the tagline, “Live life to the full despite cold”.

Might CVS’ campaign prompt cold & flu marketers to focus their creativity more on individual “life events” rather than everyday ones? Or to further highlight the efficacy and relative convenience of tablets, syrups and lozenges as opposed to CVS syringes?

If you’ve launched an advertising campaign from 1^st February 2015 or are planning to launch one before 31^st January 2016, you could be up for a Nicholas Hall Marketing Award, which reward innovation and creativity throughout the consumer healthcare industry. For details on how to enter, contact jennifer.odonnell@NicholasHall.com.

For a full review of recent A+P campaigns for cold & flu brands in leading markets, why not pick up a copy of our Cough, Cold & Allergy report? Contact nino.hunter@NicholasHall.com for details on content & pricing.

Cure the January Blues with Nicholas Hall’s Events

In the events team, we haven’t had time to think about the January blues; the awful weather or that payday seems to be further away than normal! I guess your wondering why? Well… I’m pleased to say it’s all down the constant flow of bookings to our OTC Conference & Action Workshop! With the host of guest speakers that will be presenting on innovation within the Consumer Healthcare, making this event a must attend. For more information on the guest speakers and their topics please see our brochure. There are still some great savings to be had and clearly our delegates are taking full advantage of them – and rightly so!! If you’re planning on attend any event this April, then make it this prestigious one, book early and make a saving!!