Burt’s Bees Promotes New Products with Scratch-n-sniff-along Video

Burt's Bees, in search of a younger demographic, has posted a 90-second scratch-n-sniff-along animated video on its Facebook page and is using mobile to introduce a new natural brand called güd. A major in-store program, couponing and a college campus tour are part of an integrated marketing effort to draw attention to the promotion. 

Güd, pronounced "good," is a line of products that spans eight different personal care product categories and shifts a bit from the brand's typical earth-friendly natural skin care products. Güd products incorporate scents with such youth-friendly names as Pearanormal Activity (sold exclusively at Target), Orange Petalooza, Floral Cherry Nova and Vanilla Flame.

"The goal of our marketing program is to build trial and awareness and especially to tell people that we are a new brand and we're scent driven. That's what makes güd different from any other natural product in the category," Burt's Bees Marketing Manager Garrett Putman said. "We think there is a white space in the category to focus on women with a scent fragrance. It really hasn't been very important to the category to date."

About 2.6 million scratch-n-sniff cards are being distributed that lead to the video on Facebook. There people watch the video with the cards in hand and, at various times, are prompted to scratch and sniff the card at various points as the video plays.

In the video, a young woman heads to work after applying güd body lotion. At key moments, viewers are prompted to scratch and sniff one of six corresponding aromas—some good, others not so much. In order, the scents are Orange Petalooza Body Lotion, diesel fumes (from a garbage truck, cotton candy, a dirty subway, then flowers and strawberry. The tagline is, “Wherever güd goes, güd happens.”

"Engagement is a word that gets thrown around a lot about social media, but it's really about creating experiences," said David Baldwin, founder of agency Baldwin&, which handles the program. "We know that these women love sensory experiences, so the idea was to bring it to life in as interesting a way as possible. It's a challenge to bring scent to the world in advertising."

Out on college campuses throughout March and April, guerilla teams are handing out the same card at five state universities: the University of North Carolina, the University of Florida, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Michigan and Texa sat Austin, Michigan and the University of California, Berkley.

"It is lower priced than typical natural products, and is intended to attract younger, less earthy, more contemporary consumers to the category," Putman said. "We conducted a lot of research when looking for this different consumer and found that lots of her purchase motivations were driven by fragrance."

Considering the lifestyle of this younger, 18 to 29 year-old demographic güd is trying to reach, social media is playing a large role and will continue to beyond the main events. Promotions will go out on Twitter (@gudhappens), on Facebook, via email, and at gudhappens.com. Güd already has more than 200,000 Facebook fans, which puts it at the No. 3 brand in the category just a few weeks out the door, Putman said.

"We know that mobile phones and social media are really important to her everyday life," he said. "We deliberately developed this brand with that in mind and for four of our largest products we put QR codes on the back of the products, which when scanned explains more about products and scents. But even more importantly we're giving away coupons, samples, mobile wallpapers and ringtones."

Full-page print ads including the 2-sided, 5”x 7” scratch-n-sniff card and a $1-off coupon, will appear in March issues of Allure and Lucky magazines. A QR code on the back of the cards leads to the aromavision URL.

In stores, QR?codes on all güd packages will link to a mobile-adapted aromavision site. The codes are accompanied by 24 different “floral aphorisms,” slightly offbeat güd thoughts like, “It’s like moisturizing your skin with 72 degrees and sunny.” Some 28,000 displays have been shipped to retailers including Target, Walgreens, Kroger and Walmart that will feature the products and coupons.

"We are really trying to make a big impact in store," Putman said. "This will hopefully encourage women to interact with our brand, get a coupon and try the products at a less expensive price."