Campaign: "Hats Off to Rogaine"
Company: GCI Group (N.Y, 212/546-2200)
Campaign Budget: $600,000 (campaign came in under budget by approximately 5 percent)
Although "Hats Off to Rogaine" officially kicked off on April 3, 1996, the campaign was two years in the making. Pharmacia & Upjohn, manufacturers of Rogaine (the first product medically proven to re-grow hair), was determined to make it as familiar and accessible as toothpaste to the more than 40 million Americans who suffer from thinning hair and common hair loss.
For the first three weeks of the campaign, the PR campaign would be the sole marketing tool to drive men and women into stores for the first month of the product launch.
Prior to the April 3 launch, the team's research and planning yielded two primary campaign objectives :
- Shape and manage consumers' expectations of Rogaine, and
- Re-ignite media interest in Rogaine after FDA's approval in mid-February 1996.
The national product launch at the Rainbow Room in Manhattan proved to be an electronic media blitz that created a memorable "Hats Off to Rogaine" frenzy.
Reporters were given buttons and souvenir hairbrushes along with press kits, and a giant 8-foot replica of the Rogaine package was unveiled on-stage.
And to capture the spirit of the celebration, The Ritz, a world champion barbershop quartet, performed "hairlarious" versions of popular harmonies.
The media extravaganza also featured celebrity support from Mark O'Meara, PGA Champion and Rogaine user, a celebrity stylist, leading dermatologist, and testimonials from Rogaine users.
Within a month of the launch, sales of Rogaine had doubled and the consumer hotline was jammed with 3,000 calls per day. And despite competing with the Unabomber and former Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown's plane crash for media coverage, "Hats Off to Rogaine" garnered over 55 million media impressions (primarily generated from TV).
The satellite media tour produced live interviews in the top 11 markets and seven TV crews captured the amusing spectacle. For additional local topspin, the Sony Jumbotron screen in Times Square repeatedly aired a video of the Ritz barbershop quartet all day.
The Team
Valerie DiMaria, president, GCI Group;
Mark Curran, senior vice President, GCI Group;
Eliza Feuerstein, senior account executive, GCI Group;
Jeff Palmer, public relations manager, Pharmacia & Upjohn, Inc.;
Sandy Radnovich, GCI Group; account supervisor;
John Ruane, public relations manager; Pharmacia & Upjohn, Inc.;
Phil Sheldon, director of Public Relations, Pharmacia & Upjohn, Inc.;
Ted Smits, account supervisor, GCI Group;
Richard Spangler, brand manager, Rogaine.