Wrigley’s Freedent brand got a makeover this fall, shedding decades off its image and positioning its new Total Whitening gum for a younger, hotter and specifically female consumer.
‘The person we were trying to target [was] about 30, single and quite urban,’ says account management group head Stephanie Gordon at Leo Burnett, who worked closely with Wrigley’s media AOR, OMD Canada, also Toronto-based.

With a limited budget, the six-month campaign reached out to the out-and-about audience. Ad-boards and samples were distributed via hanger neckties at drycleaners and placed inside tanning beds with Toronto ambient media co Statements Media, as well as in fitness centres, office washrooms, retail chains, restobars and wild postings. ‘We’ve used some creative approaches before, but the tanning salons and drycleaning [are] new,’ says Dan Alvo, director of marketing and innovation at Toronto-based Wrigley Canada. ‘I think that speaks to our ability to understand our consumers and to talk to them where it’s most relevant. You’re going to a tanning salon, you’re trying to make yourself look your best, and obviously white teeth are a big part of that.’

One of the first to develop the non-stick positioning, Freedent has long been associated with an older, often denture-wearing consumer. While Freedent still skews to boomers of both genders, Total speaks to a different audience, says Alvo. ‘Certainly the brand had a tired, older attitude before, and now this campaign is changing that.’

First launched around the Toronto International Film Festival in September, the campaign will run in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver until the end of this year. As sales ‘beat expectations,’ a second phase of the campaign is planned for early 2008.

Gordon says the narrow audience presented opportunities in terms of messaging. ‘Our creative idea wouldn’t have been as strong if we’d had to try to make it work for men and for women. So it was a risk, but one that does seem to be paying off.’