OLLY stays at the forefront of wellness innovation by changing the way we see and consume supplements, whether it’s with delightfully tasty-and-effective vitamins that fit seamlessly into your routine, or by demystifying the science behind our products. OLLY delivered once again with the launch of Brainy Chews, an expansion into the Nootropics space as well as a brand new format—a tasty, portable soft chew.
OLLY Brainy Chews debuted with three hero products: Focused Thinker, Chill Thinker and Energized Thinker.
With 84% of adults reporting they’re distracted at work¹ and 60% reporting fatigue and burnout², each chew was meticulously researched and developed as an effective but nostalgic (Starbursts, anyone?) solution to an average millennial’s day-to-day struggles in cognitive areas like focus, stress and fatigue.
The Task
A launch is always a multi-pronged effort, and the Brainy Chews line was no exception. In addition to introducing a new-to-market cognitive supplement, OLLY had the additional challenges of: differentiating each Chew’s individual benefits and use-cases; conveying the new product format to the consumer; and educating them on nootropic supplements. And this was while creating a campaign that hit all of OLLY’s pillars of relevance, efficacy and delight.
My Role
As campaign lead, I first dove into the research provided by OLLY’s Insights Team to get an understanding for the “why” of Brainy Chews. Throughout ideation and execution, I worked closely with Product and Marketing stakeholders to ensure everyone was aligned on business goals and priorities for launch. I led campaign concepting and messaging with my design counterpart to establish the story we wanted to tell and the creative direction and strategy that would lead us there. Together, we conducted competitive analysis, ideated and brainstormed visuals and copy to make sure both aspects were in sync with each other to tell the big message: ‘Chew This’ and the supporting line ‘No fluff, no gimmicks. Just cognitive supplements.’
Just a small glimpse into my mind during initial brainstorms as I explored different territories and possible creative directions.
I established a tone of voice and messaging hierarchy that could quickly—and wittily—communicate: what nootropic supplements are; the benefits of taking them; and the differentiation between each Chew. To balance the playful and ethereal art direction, copy took on a more cerebral, snappy tone to educate without losing OLLY’s trademark humor. In order to tell a cohesive story that provided distinct moments, each Chew received its own narrative to establish different product highlights, hero ingredients and use-case scenarios.
After getting stakeholder buy-in, I led a team of six talented creatives in executing this vision. I became copy’s messaging touchpoint to bring all campaign assets—from web, email, paid and beyond—to life. Together, this small but mighty team delivered on 93 Briefs + 18 Video Requests in 18 weeks.
Dot Com
We launched a bright and brainy campaign website that celebrated each Chew without sacrificing shoppability or conversion.
Between its colorful and evocative look-and-feel and sharp, concise copy, the landing page was where we told a story about the need for these cognitive chews, the efficacy of their science-backed ingredients, and how they fit into your life.
To ground readers without overwhelming them, we used bullet points to mimic a to-do list that laid out relatable need states that arise during work and play. In addition to establishing credibility with education and some real stats on millennials’ current state of mind, each chew received a story that spoke to both their benefits and the impressive ingredients that make up their expert formulation.
Paid Audio
Listen to a Brainy Chews ad on Kelly Ripa’s podcast, Let’s Talk Off Camera.
The best way to spread awareness is still word of mouth. We placed a series of ads introducing OLLY’s new Brainy Chews and L’OLLY Pops across Spotify, Sirius XM and several podcasts.
I wrote all of the ad spots, focusing on letting millennial parents know within :30 seconds (and less!) that OLLY was here to support their family’s brain health with new cognitive supplements.
Paid Social
We launched a robust paid ad effort across: Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and Pinterest to drive awareness and engagement.
To create variety, we conducted two A/B tests for carousel ad units. The first slide was an experiment in design treatment, type and product photography. The second slide tested which on-image copy would entice the viewer to click—benefit copy that spoke to efficacy; or ingredient copy that highlighted the science-backed “goods inside.”
This resulted in 113 bespoke assets for both paid and programmatic media, both static and motion, that lived across different platforms and HTML5 ads. 38 of these units would be optimized due to good performance and further learnings.
ECOM
OLLY’s Brainy Launch was two-tiered, with an exclusive soft launch at Target in April, and a rollout across all national retailers in October.
We worked closely with Target’s internal creative agency to guide them on the Brainy story so their creative assets were true to the Chews look-and-feel and in-line with the OLLY brand. This entailed creating 22 assets, including: toolkits, brand pages, ads and videos—not including what we made for in-store sampling signage, product displays and end-caps.
With Amazon becoming an increasingly important partner, we optimized our learnings from Target to create assets that leveraged our best messaging and design treatment. This resulted in 91 total assets including: video ads, assorted banners, brand pages, ATF and BTF tiles, and Amazon device screens (Kindle, Fire TV, Alexa).
These are just some of the Amazon banner ads we created.
CRM
To let OLLY fans know about this exciting nootropic headed their way, we launched an email campaign to pique their interest and drive excitement about Brainy Chews and L’OLLYs.
While Chews and L’OLLYs are both cognitive supplements, they’re intended for different target consumers. To differentiate the two lines without alienating the other, we strategized how to structure content it was dedicated to the joint Brainy platform or separate products: for design this meant creating distinct guidelines and templates; for copy this meant establishing messaging and product hierarchy.
This ensured a cohesive campaign that established Chews and L’OLLYs as distinct products within OLLY’s cognitive collection. The result was 7 individual emails that followed launch timeline from: teaser to announcement, benefit and use-case education, and consumer reviews.