The Wall Street Journal-20080212-J-J-s Web Ads Depart From TV Formula- Baby-lotion Cartoons Play Up Bonding Time- Risky Marketing Turn
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J&J's Web Ads Depart From TV Formula; Baby-lotion Cartoons Play Up Bonding Time; Risky Marketing Turn
Full Text (756 words)Johnson & Johnson is one of the largest television advertisers in the U.S. But to promote its best-selling baby lotion, the company is putting most of its effort into a different approach: Web cartoons.
In one of its animated Web videos, as a mother starts massaging her daughter's feet, legs and chest, her baby giggles, smiles and makes eye contact. Pink swirls meant to represent the lotion's scent fill the screen.
The ads for Johnson's Baby Lotion, developed by an animation studio, not an ad agency, attempt to highlight the emotional connections babies build with their mothers. In contrast, most of J&J's competitors focus on the medicinal benefits of baby lotion. Johnson's is favoring the Internet over TV because it believes young parents scour the Web for baby-care advice.
Johnson's decision to depart from its decades-long advertising formula carries risk, as competition in the baby-lotion market is heating up. Johnson's retains almost half of the $814.5 million baby- care market, but it faces competition from companies that weren't even in the U.S. market five years ago, including Ascendia Brands Inc., with Baby Magic, and Kimberly-Clark Corp., with Huggies, according to Euromonitor International. Johnson's is deviating from the medium and the message that put it on top.
Many consumer-products companies, which tend to be conservative in their marketing approaches, have been slow to go digital. Johnson's move amounts to a huge commitment to Web marketing. Its campaign follows a series of highly successful so-called Webisodes that Unilever created for Dove's Calming Night body soaps and moisturizers in 2006. People watched more than 45,000 hours of the several-minute- long videos, which were directed by Penny Marshall, and more than 3.5 million people visited a site created to promote the product.
Johnson's Baby Lotion, which has been around since 1942, is one of the company's oldest and most well-known brands. While the last big marketing push for the lotion was in 2001, the company hasn't aired a TV promotion for the so-called Pink brand since 1990. That commercial, called "Mary Reynolds," featured a mother with a toddler and baby. Its last print ad for the lotion was in 1991. Part of the reason for that long lag is that sales of the baby lotion have been growing steadily, and the company believes the product hasn't needed much of a marketing boost. Also, Johnson's typically chooses to focus its marketing efforts every year on a few existing products, which means it's not unusual for a specific item to get a splashy marketing campaign only once every decade.
Johnson's is focusing on its "Pink brand" this year because of research it has done on mothers and babies. The company is promoting itself as a bonding specialist, offering parents a list of signs of deeper bonds with their kids. (One example: longer gazes.) Massaging -- with lotion, of course -- is part of the bonding formula. "The lotion gives moms a reason to touch their baby," said Bridgette Heller, global president of Johnson & Johnson Babycare.
The first Web video in the series, called "Baby Massage Class," will debut this week. Animation Collective, a New York studio that makes animated TV series for networks, including Viacom Inc.'s Nickelodeon, created the four short videos. They will run on Johnson's baby-care site, www.touchingbond.com, and will be promoted through a series of ads on parent-focused Web sites and BabyCenter, a network of Web sites owned by Johnson & Johnson that attracted 4.3 million unique visitors in January, according to comScore Media Metrix.
J&J, the fifth-largest TV advertiser in the country in terms of spending, isn't completely eliminating traditional advertising with its baby-lotion campaign. In addition to the animated spots for the Web, the company has created a TV and print campaign called "Make Your Touch More Touching," although it doesn't include any national TV buys. The ads are appearing on cable networks such as Lifetime, TLC and Nick@Nite, and in magazines, including Meredith Publications' Parents and American Baby.
Johnson's is also trying to get into the adult market. Three years ago, it launched a series of products targeted at women. The idea: The same company that worked for babies could restore adult skin to its baby softness. The white bottle of its Softwash moisturizing body wash for adults has the same pink lid the company uses on baby products. The packaging also highlights the connection to the baby products. The back of the package reads: "Johnson's -- the brand that nurtured you as a baby, has developed a body care line to nurture you again."
