Yakult – in a highly regulated category, establishing a distinctive positioning to overcome extensive barriers to purchase

Yakult is a pioneer in microbiology, driven by a purposeful desire to make wellbeing easily achievable for all through better gut health. It launched the first consumer probiotic product over 85 years ago. Arriving in the UK during the mid 90s, Yakult has since helped grow probiotics into an established health and wellbeing category. Quiet Storm has been Yakult’s strategic and creative partner since 2015, first in the UK and then across Europe, delivering integrated through-the-line campaigns, always-on social activity, as well as extensive brand positioning work. 

Challenge

Health and wellbeing has become an ever more important consideration for all of us. Although Yakult may have invented the probiotics category, it has become challenging to translate its high awareness to active choice. Most significantly, Yakult is out-gunned by its main competitor Actimel: the Danone giant has higher ad spend, greater range presence and flavour variation, and a significant price advantage with aggressive promotions. At the same time, the parallel growth of new entrants kept bringing novelty to the sector. It’s all too easy for Yakult to be overlooked if it isn’t on the shopping list already: people simply can’t see it, or don’t understand why they should buy it.

The 'Noise' + Insight

For those concerned about wellbeing, doing the ‘right thing’ is important. But with new options arriving all the time, and information (accurate or otherwise) so readily available, it can be hard to differentiate between the real deal and the latest fad. Some brands promise significant health benefits, but not always with any meaningful substantiation, relying instead on emotional, ‘fluffy’ lifestyle appeal. This confusion and contradiction can leave many consumers unsure of the right thing to do. 

Brand Role

In looking to stand out, and to offer a price-justifying ‘reason why’, Yakult has two things in its favour - neither of them were well-known, yet. First, its scientific pedigree. To this day, Yakult still see themselves as a science institute specialising in microbiology, and sell consumer products only to fulfill their ‘wellbeing for all’ purpose. Secondly, Yakult is Japanese, a country known for its wellbeing philosophy. From here, we found a distinctive, ownable and meaningful positioning for the Yakult brand, building on its founding philosophy of ‘Healthy Gut, Healthy world’

Big Idea

For people seeking wellbeing solutions that work in an often confusing and contradictory category, we wanted to show how Yakult offers proven scientific trust and reassurance; a counterpoint to the often ‘too good to be true’ claims made by others. We captured this in a high-level platform idea ‘Science of Wellbeing’. But this was only half the job. To reach people with this message, we needed to dramatise our scientific reassurance in a way that would stand out from the lifestyle clutter in the wellbeing space.

This we did with a fame-building integrated campaign that harnessed Yakult’s Japanese origins in a disruptive and unexpected way. Playfully poking fun at Western misconceptions about Eastern wellbeing traditions, we positioned Yakult as the brand you could trust in the midst of all the mumbo-jumbo - because it is a little bottle of science (not magic).

Our ‘Science (Not Magic)’ campaign worked across multiple channels, on TV, OOH, print and digital, presenting the brand in a visually distinctive and evocative way that people found emotionally engaging. The visual equities established by the campaign were used in parallel as part of a Channel4 Breakfast Time Sponsorship package where (given sponsorship restrictions) we focused more on Yakult’s Japanese heritage. 

Beyond the core integrated campaign, we also brought the ‘Science of Wellbeing’ into social media. We defined what ‘wellbeing’ meant for Yakult, and created communication pillars that explored mental, physical, emotional and social wellbeing. We worked with Yakult’s science team to fact-check all wellbeing claims. We created an always-on annual calendar of social posts for Instagram and Facebook, supplemented by seasonally-themed campaigns including influencer programme, competitions and giveaways. We also redesigned the website to emphasise on ‘wellbeing’. To further amplify this, we conceptualised an experiential AR stunt with sampling. It was themed around moments of calm, and ran at Bluewater Shopping Centre, Waterloo Train Station and branded London taxis.

Results

In System 1 testing, Science (Not Magic) achieved a Star rating at the top end of good, with its Spike and Fluency both rated as exceptional. On IPSOS tracking, the campaign was rated 70% above norms in terms of creative distinctiveness. 

Having established a clear, ownable positioning and ‘reason why’ for the brand, the campaign was translated into double digit sales growth in a declining market, whilst allowing Yakult to retain its significant price premium. 

As well as an effective core campaign, our social activities also delivered positive results, with post engagement increasing by 130% and page reach up by 100%. The experiential event delivered 500k OTS. 

Initially developed as a UK-specific campaign, the success of Science (Not Magic) meant the campaign and social activities were subsequently rolled out across Europe.