Design Case Study: Kleenex Balsam
How we increased Kleenex Balsam sales year-on-year by 40% with an adaptive marketing tool.
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Cannes Lions Gold Award, 2013
“Best use of digital media”
Prior to 2012, Kleenex Balsam ran their yearly Cold and Flu campaign from October to February without fail. However in 2011 the UK experienced the hottest October in 100 years, resulting in low cases of cold and flu.
Kleenex wanted to find a strategic way to allocate media spend. Mindshare’s answer was to to create a data led adaptive planning tool using NHS and google keyword data. The tool would help tackle the UKs regular flu epidemics by allowing media planners to target affected geographic regions in real-time.
This design case study shows how we created a tool which went on to increase Kleenex Balsam sales year-on-year by 40 per cent.
Role
London agency Maido were the technical partner for this project. As Senior Designer I led UX and UI design of the tool working with our developers and the team at Mindshare.
Our Approach
We worked iteratively using design workshops, lo-fi sketches, prototypes, feedback from users and design mockups. This lean approach enabled us to centre product strategy on user and business goals.
Personas
We knew the tool would be used exclusively by media planning and buying teams. Two archetypes were pinpointed.
Business and User Outcomes
Discussions with Mindshare meant we had a solid understanding of the business outcomes for the planning tool. However, we needed to establish persona outcomes. We asked the following questions:
With these answers we could start to brainstorm features and create hypotheses.
Collaborative Design
A collaborative design workshop was organised involving Mindshare and our production team. Using research, we worked together to decide functionality and interface elements. This proved to be a great way to create a shared understanding of the design direction.
From lo-fi to hi-fi
Using the workshop output we created quick lo-fi sketches to test our assumptions. This allowed us to rapidly iterate from lo-fi to hi-fi interface mockups informed by feedback.
The Kleenex Balsam Adaptive Planning Tool
Quickly understand where media should allocated by seeing where flu outbreaks are happening:
See when and where media is planned:
Suggest media spend and show progress to give other people effective oversight:
See how sales compare against the level of outbreak:
See the remaining campaign budget by media channel:
Results
40% year-on-year increase in Kleenex Balsam sales
432,499 extra boxes sold
96% of media spend going to regions suffering a live flu outbreak
50% increase in campaign effectiveness
80% accuracy when predicting flu outbreaks
Global roll out. UK success meant the tool was used globally.
Awards
Cannes Lions Gold Award, 2013
“Best use of digital media”
