Putting the fun back into brushing

Tooth decay in Australian children is on the rise with over of six-year-olds showing signs of tooth decay and the average twelve-year-old having at least one decayed, missing or filled tooth. Oral-B Stages is a portfolio of toothbrushes created to meet the changing oral care needs of children as they grow. Oral-B was losing market share and needed to re-invigorate sales of the range by winning the hearts and minds of mums, kids and dentists.

The big idea was to provide mothers with the tools they need to make brushing fun while educating both mother and child about oral care. Oral-B has no history of providing children’s entertainment, so entered into a 12 month partnership with Playhouse Disney reach the core demographic of mums and kids aged 2-5. Disney created bespoke characters that appeared twice daily in 2 minute brushing break appearing within kids content, including the Oral-B “Do the Brush Brush Brush” song. The campaign was endorsed by the Australasian Academy of Paediatric Dentistry (AAPD). 750,000 DVDs were distributed with New Idea magazine, retailer sampling programmes and directly to dentists. In addition, Disney provided two popular cartoons to feature on the DVD. This was supported by advertorial, an Oral-B Stages website and advice centre and point of sale activity., as well as radio and newspaper PR activity through interviews with the Chairman of the AAPD.

Sales of Oral-B sky-rocketed with the top of the range Oral-B Stages Power brush up 41.8% in $ sales vs a year ago within 4 weeks of launch. There was sustained growth in weeks 5-8 with 36% increase in $ sales vs previous year.