Background

For 130 years, Listerine has been synonymous with one thing: 99% germ kill. Faced with more sophisticated consumers, stagnant growth in mature markets, as well as an increasingly competitive and cosmetically focussed global market, they needed a global brand platform that would underpin their future growth and relevance.

Challenge

The vast majority of people that are in the mouth-care category feel that just brushing their teeth is enough—so how can we show them the value of incorporating an additional step to their routine with a product that hasn’t changed for 130 years?

In other words, without anything changing, how do we unlock new value?

Insight

Anyone who has tried Listerine knows that using it requires a certain boldness. We bet that Listerine users were not only bold in their mouth-care choices, but other aspects of their life, too.

Solution

To test our hypothesis, we created a comprehensive global quantitative study that proved across 500 measures that users of Listerine were more inclined to exhibit bold behaviors and desires. This gave birth to our new brand platform:

Listerine ignites a boldness inside, inspiring you to ask for more from life.

And we accompanied it with a Big Brand Idea:

Bring out the Bold

Not just a repositioning, this platform heralded the discovery of a new benefit that could be quantified and contextualized anywhere in the world where boldness is exhibited or sought, helping Listerine unlock new growth in existing and emerging markets.