Discover new opportunities for your brand to break through
Case studies
Pop-Tarts® Bites
U.S.
For Pop-Tarts® Bites, it took several iterations and new technology to get the right bite for on-the-go usage. The team remained committed to perfecting the product throughout the development process to ensure it would encourage out-of-home consumption and maintain the core foundation of a Pop-Tart®.
Farm Fresh Kurma Milk
Southeast Asia
Farm Fresh Kurma Milk was the first mover to introduce Kurma (dates) as a new flavor in the milk category in Malaysia, which created a new trend that many other brands followed. As a result, the Kurma flavor rose to rank third among all milk flavors and surpassed the popular strawberry flavor in the Malaysian market.
Twinings® In’fuse
Australia
Twinings® launched In’fuse to expand into the refresh occasion. Extensive research and development helped Twinings® understand the ideal positioning as well as the right mix of flavors and ingredients.
mamaearth®
India
mamaearth®, the successful baby care brand, discovered the untapped opportunity of toxin-free, safe and cruelty-free products among consumers beyond millennial parents. Being a purposeful brand with quality and safe products, mamaearth® achieved breakthrough success and made ‘toxin-free’ the next big thing in the personal care space.
LUX Botanicals® Body Wash
East Asia
LUX Botanicals® Body Wash differentiated itself from the category through three lenses: the idea was inspired by what ‘natural’ meant for consumers, the product was developed using natural but exotic ingredients that leveraged its key benefit, fragrance, and the marketing was designed to target young consumers with trendy positioning and a well-designed mix communicated through all of its assets.
While differentiation and incrementality are valuable for breaking onto the shelf, many launches aren’t incremental: about 25% of new products actually shrink total brand sales. But, a successfully executed extension can drive sustained growth, and luckily there are multiple avenues to increase consumption and penetration in order to do so:
- Attracting new buyers
- Expanding your brand into new occasions
- Capitalizing on a trend
- Premiumization
- Growing distribution
Multiple winners of the 2020 Breakthrough Innovation awards from NielsenIQ BASES successfully grew their brand by expanding into a new usage occasion. They employed various tactics to differentiate the innovation from the parent brand product and cue the new occasion, while still maintaining core aspects of brand equity.
Even the best ideas and most compelling extensions will struggle to achieve success without a strong performing product. According to NielsenIQ BASES R&D analysis, there’s an 80% failure rate for products deemed “not ready” in pre-market product tests that launch anyway. On the other hand, there is 30% greater year-one sales for launches with strong product performance over those with weak performance. NielsenIQ BASES Breakthrough Innovations don’t cut corners when it comes to delivering exceptional product experiences.
Break the mold and bring your innovation to life
Case studies
“Game of Thrones” OREO
U.S.
For “Game of Thrones” OREO, Mondelēz International, with the help of their ad agency, departed from the standard blue OREO packaging to create a pack with ‘wow’ factor. The ad agency had never designed a package before and OREO had never launched packaging beyond its core blue design. Stepping out of the box led to huge outcomes for this short-term launch.
Ariel® Lightening Blue & Green Series
East Asia
The success of Ariel® 3D is grounded in the development of innovation with local consumer needs in mind. After importing the concept and the technology from Japan, the team adapted the innovation to the Chinese need for a lighter laundry experience. This entailed efficient cleaning while also creating a less tedious experience. The size of the capsules was also adjusted to fit smaller laundry loads with higher frequency.
Garnier Skin Naturals Micellar Cleansing Water
Southeast Asia
This Breakthrough Innovation was not in one but three Southeast Asian markets: Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Garnier Skin Naturals Micellar Cleansing Water transformed the cleansing category by providing consumers a new way of removing makeup. Having previously launched in other markets, Garnier lifted the existing product and successfully adapted it to the local market realities. The promotional campaign leveraged one of the most pressing issues in these countries, pollution, and educated consumers that cleaning is not enough to remove the impurities. As a result, Garnier’s campaign focused on a three-step process of ‘pour, press and swipe’ to effectively remove make-up.
Traditional research and awareness-driving tools continue to be the foundation for learning and activation. The 2020 BASES Top Breakthrough Innovations employed new-to-the-brand activation tactics that were customized to the innovation and its audience.
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Case studies
Love Beauty and Planet
U.S.
“In selecting a team, it was important that we got people who were passionate about this space and keen on doing something meaningful for the planet. We had tough choices to make but because the north star of the project and the team members were so clear it allowed us to make decisions and move forward.”
Piyush Jain
Global Vice President
Unilever
Nestlé NANGROW™
India
While most brands would start with mass media and then use digital as an add-on, Nestlé NANGROW™ flipped it to a “digital-first” strategy to activate this launch in a very accelerated and focused manner. They mapped online audience behavior to deliver personalized and relevant messages to parents based on a deep understanding of their needs, interests and interactions with their brand. They also retargeted the messages based on what was more relevant and contextual to the mothers. Finally, they built a re-marketing strategy that delivered contextual content to consumers at relevant points in their journey online. This media strategy helped drive greater impact and accelerate the journey from awareness to trial, which could traditionally take far longer.
Coca-Cola Plus®
East Asia
First launched in Japan, Coca-Cola Plus® was smartly launched as an imported version in select Hong Kong stores to quickly build awareness as a beverage that contained fiber to “slow down sugar absorption and reduce fat absorption.” The team also took time to execute focus groups to develop communications with the right consumer language and taste tests to minimize possible local taste concerns.
The pace of business is accelerating, but speedy decision-making alone does not yield success. Marketers must balance speed with fully delivering on the consumer insight. Across the NielsenIQ BASES Top Breakthrough Innovations, many teams made decisions to prioritize doing right by the innovation over delivering on speed alone. In many cases, ironically, these decisions enabled speed as well.
These winners had clear strategies to get team commitment and leadership support, and to generate both internal and retailer excitement, further enabling and driving success of the launches.
Build team commitment & excitement
Select team members that are passionate about the opportunity space and empower them to make decisions that keep the consumer insight front and center.
Gain leadership support
Show leadership the money and bring them in early. Prove the initiative is worthy of support by presenting the opportunity space and sizing the prize.
Generate retailer excitement
Demonstrate to the retailer not only that your innovation can be big, but that you will make it big. Tailored support and spend can help here, but it’s not the only lever.
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