Earlier this year Johnson’s Baby, a baby skincare company launched a television campaign (TVC), featuring Bollywood actors, Anil Kapoor and his daughter Sonam Kapoor. The film conceptualised by DDB Mudra looks to reinforce the brand’s commitment to help protect a baby’s delicate skin from day-one with products formulated using only ‘baby safe ingredients’.
Johnson’s Baby says that it is committed to delivering the best for babies with products that are specially designed for baby’s skin. For more than 125 years, it has conducted research to further understand the unique needs of a baby’s eyes, skin, and hair. This science it explains is behind every one of its gentle and Clinically Proven Mild products.
Its parent Kenvue claims to be the world’s largest pure-play consumer health company by revenue. Built on more than a century of heritage, its brands, including Aveeno, Johnson’s, Listerine, Neutrogena, and Tylenol, are science-backed and recommended by healthcare professionals around the world. Kenvue, added that it believes in the extraordinary power of everyday care and our teams work every day to put that power in consumers’ hands and earn a place in their hearts and homes..
Medianews4u.com caught up with Manoj Gadgil, Business Unit Head-Essential Health & VP Marketing – Kenvue.
1. What is the rationale behind ‘Protection* ka Promise from Day 1’ campaign and how has the marketing strategy evolved over the years?
Last year, Johnson’s Baby launched ‘Promise, Pehle Pal Se’ campaign which captured the brand’s unwavering commitment to help protect baby’s delicate skin from day 1. Ahead of the campaign, Johnson’s Baby reached out to over 150001 mums from every part of India, different cultures and backgrounds to understand their promise to their little ones. There was one resounding promise which went beyond boundaries and cultures, a promise to protect their baby. Based on this common purpose, Johnson’s Baby commits to mums to help fulfil their precious promise to their babies.
As a brand with products that are first to touch a baby’s skin, we understand our responsibility. We remain focussed on creating the safest baby products, with gentle formulations bringing decades of knowledge and science. The products are backed by rigorous scientific research, with formulas tested by paediatricians and dermatologists suitable for newborn skin.
Taking our brand promise further, this Mother’s Day Johnson’s Baby celebrated the diverse journeys to motherhood with our ‘The Long Wait for Day 1′ campaign. The film highlighted the resilience and determination of mothers who have endured different paths, such as an IVF treatment, adoption process, or had a preterm baby. With this campaign, Johnson’s Baby’s committed to supporting motherhood in all its forms, celebrating the fact that no matter the journey to Day 1, every mother promises to protect their baby.
With our latest campaign, ‘Protection Ka Promise from Day 1’, Johnson’s Baby furthers its commitment highlighting the role of its superior products to help protect a baby’s skin from Day 1. The film stars one of Bollywood’s most favourite father-daughter duo, Anil and Sonam Kapoor as they come together to deliver our promise in a heartwarming and fun film.
2. Will purpose-led marketing grow in importance?
Today purpose-led marketing is becoming an integral part of brand marketing campaigns. For Johnson’s Baby, purpose-led marketing has been two pronged.
Firstly, as a brand which has partnered with parents for generations, Johnson’s baby is guided by a mission to create the safest baby products bringing decades of knowledge and science, building a strong foundation to choose to help protect the delicate skin of a baby from Day 1. As parents become more discerning and conscious about the brands they choose for their newborn, Johnson’s Baby is committed to help parents make more informed choices through various education initiatives to help parents understand ingredients and labels better.
Over the last five years, we have pioneered category education on ingredient transparency with campaigns like ‘Turn to Learn’ collaborating with influencers encouraging them to read labels, ingredients and claims to make informed choices. We took another step to bring ingredient transparency by showing mums 100% ingredients in our baby skincare products. Last year, we launched an innovative augmented reality (AR) innovation across our packaging and at retail outlets to highlight each ingredient and their role in our product portfolio.
Purpose-led marketing has also been part of our brand campaigns. Recently, on Mother’s Day, Johnson’s Baby’s launched a digital film, ‘The Long Wait for Day 1′ which celebrated the diverse journeys to motherhood. The film highlights the resilience and determination of mothers who have endured different paths, such as an IVF treatment, adoption process, having a preterm baby. The film highlighted some of these challenging motherhood journeys and reinforced Johnson’s Baby’s commitment to supporting motherhood in all its forms.
3. Johnson’s Baby uses Bollywood celebrities like Anil and Sonam Kapoor. How effective is Bollywood as a medium in cutting through the clutter?
In the evolving and cluttered landscape of content consumption, celebrities and influencers play a crucial role in amplifying a campaign’s message to create stronger brand recall as well as drive emotional connections. For Johnson’s baby, while we have regularly partnered with leading Bollywood celebrities around product launches and for digital campaigns, with the current campaign for the first time we have onboarded Bollywood celebrities as part of our television campaign.
We are delighted to on board Anil and Sonam Kapoor, Bollywood’s popular father-daughter duo which represent the multi-generation families. The new campaign creatively captures real-life father-daughter on reel as they engage in a fun banter bringing alive the joy, happiness a baby brings to a family but also the many questions, dilemmas it also brings making it authentic and relatable.
To further connect with our consumers with a hint of nostalgia, in the new campaign, we took a creative route by highlighting how using ordinary skincare products might result in moisture disappearing from the baby’s delicate skin, a bit like the disappearing act of ‘Mr India’, one of the most iconic movie characters and blockbuster films by Anil Kapoor.
We believe the parents and consumers will resonate with the new campaign. Apart from the celebrities, the true star of the campaign—the baby and its cute expressions—will leave a lasting impression on parents.
4. Will the ‘Protection* ka Promise, Pehle Din Se’ campaign run across both traditional and digital platforms?
The ‘Protection ka Promise, Pehle Din Se’ campaign has been rolled out across a mix of traditional and digital platforms to achieve maximum visibility and engagement. The campaign will be seen across prominent television channels, digital platforms and social media networks. This integrated approach allows Johnson’s Baby to leverage the scale and impact of traditional media, while also tapping into the targeted, interactive nature of digital channels to connect with younger, tech-savvy parents. 1k+ influencer mums have gone live taking their promise ahead with the new campaign across social media platforms.
5. What will the media mix look like in 2024 for the various Johnson’s Baby products? Will there be any change compared to 2023?
As India’s leading babycare brand, Johnson’s Baby, we will continue to invest in traditional medium like television advertising to maintain broader reach and brand visibility. In addition, we will continue to pivot towards a more integrated, data-driven media approach exploring new age digital platforms and social media to tap the tech savvy parents to deeper engagement and personalization.
For new mums, word of mouth especially recommendations from other new mums are among the top two drivers of purchase. Given this, we will continue to actively engage with mommy influencers and communities through science backed conversations as well as user-generated content to enhance authenticity and reliability.
6. What role is AR and AI playing for Johnson’s Baby in terms of product development and marketing activities?
In a digital era, new age technologies like AR and AI have reimagined marketing and enabling brands engage with consumers like never before, create immersion engagements, compelling campaigns through various digital touchpoints. Most importantly, it has enabled brands to better understand the emerging needs of consumers and create personalised engagements with them.
Additionally, last year, Johnson’s Baby introduced a pioneering AR feature that allowed parents to scan our skincare products and understand 100% ingredient transparency. This innovation educated parents about the purposeful ingredients used in our products and their role, empowering them to make informed decisions for their babies. By building transparency and safety, AR creates a more interactive and trustworthy experience for consumers.
Through these technologies, Johnson’s Baby is not only meeting the evolving expectations of modern consumers but also setting new benchmarks in the babycare industry by integrating innovation with meaningful consumer experiences.
7. In the past, Johnson’s Baby has launched cause related marketing initiatives. What can we expect in this regard going forward?
Johnson’s Baby is committed to delivering the best for babies with products that are specially designed for baby’s skin. For more than 125 years, the brand has pioneered research to further understand the unique needs of a baby’s eyes, skin, and hair to provide mothers with safe, clinically proven mild, and 100% gentle babycare products. We are committed to furthering a science backed, care forward approach partnering parents, families and the larger ecosystem to curate initiatives which further our vision.
Recently, on Mother’s Day, we held educational workshop with Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers as well as nurses in maternity hospitals to educate them on newborn skincare guidelines and science behind newborn skin. We also undertook awareness sessions to educate and engage new mothers on skincare practices for newborns, share their motherhood journey and provide hands-on experience with Johnson’s Baby.
We also partner with nursing homes to celebrate with new mothers their Day 1 with their little one by sharing Johnson’s baby gift kits to help protect a baby’s skin.
As we move ahead, we remain committed to further science and skincare innovations to partner with parents on this important journey.
