K-C Turns to Spider-Man, Tinker Bell

Neenah, Wis. — Kimberly-Clark has called upon iconic characters Spider-Man and Tinker Bell to help grab the attention of mothers typically on autopilot when purchasing training pants for their bedwetting children. Spider-Man (licensed from Marvel Entertainment and used for the boys products) and Tinker Bell (Walt Disney Co., girls) are the centerpieces of the promotional, merchandising and digital efforts."We are targeting moms of kids age 4-6 who are still using training pants to help manage bedwetting," says Dave Caputo, senior brand manager, GoodNites, explaining that diapers are for babies and training pants are for children starting to potty train. Bedwetting is another stage. "This isn't about training anymore. It just happens to be a developmental issue."We learned that moms have been using training pants for a while" prior to dealing with bedwetting, he says. "She goes into the aisle, looks for her trusted training pant, picks it up and doesn't even look around because she thinks she has the right solution. Spider-Man and Tinker Bell help us to break her out of that autopilot. Having the characters on our packaging, as well as on the pants, are big attention grabbers in the aisle."The characters are intended to appeal to parents and their children. They were selected based on research of character appeal by the entertainment firms. "We relied on our partners at Marvel and Disney to help us come up with the right characters for the age range, and we think we hit a home run," Caputo says. "Both characters resonate strongly with that age range, with an appeal that extends beyond 6 years old, and we know that with kids 4-6, there's that aspirational element as well."The program started in July shortly after the release of Marvel and Sony Pictures' "The Amazing Spider-Man." That timing was mostly coincidental, Caputo says, as Kimberly-Clark had slotted this promotion well in advance to build upon the launch of its GoodNites bed mats. The company did fine-tune its plans in consultation with Marvel to take advantage of the July 3 movie release. "We were able to both add to and piggyback on the publicity going on around the movie. The timing couldn't be better," Caputo says.The advertising and promotion is wide-ranging, including traditional print advertising in mom and parenting magazines, freestanding inserts and public relations. There is a "huge" digital component, including parenting websites, retailer microsites, social media and the use of mommy bloggers. "When mom is researching bedwetting or potty training, her doctor is a trusted advisor, but she also looks to other moms for helpful advice," Caputo says. "We are partnering with several mommy bloggers and some kindergarten teacher bloggers. We know that this is also the back-to-school timeframe."The brand also has a Facebook page. "Spider-Man and Tinker Bell are going to add a lot of value as we continue to build on our social media presence," Caputo says.Ogilvy & Mather, Chicago, is the lead creative agency; OgilvyAction, New York, is the shopper marketing agency; Organic, Detroit, handles the digital efforts; and Edelman, Chicago, is responsible for public relations.The campaign continues through September, with the graphics appearing on product and packaging through the end of the year.GoodNites has an extensive website offering information and education. And the brand is working with its shopper marketing group to customize the program. In-store materials are essential to breaking the shopper out of her "autopilot" mindset, he says. "We want to reach them out-of-store and make them aware of the GoodNites franchise, but we want to help our retail partners in-store as far as driving that conversion – and that trade-up – into GoodNites." Caputo did not name specific retailers but said displays appear in the mass, grocery and drug channels.The corrugated displays have separate panels showing Spider-Man and Tinker Bell. Caputo says the design of the P-O-P is "fairly traditional. It's the graphics that are doing the big talking for us."Adds Caputo: "Short-term sales lift is going to be the big measure. … We should be able to get a nice read on what kind of incrementality Spider-Man and Tinker Bell, along with the rest of the program, are able to bring to the category and to the GoodNites brand.""We want to make sure that we are doing the right things with the mom who isn't currently in the GoodNites franchise to bring her into the category. But we also want to make sure that we are doing the right thing for our loyal consumers today."

K-C Turns to Spider-Man, Tinker Bell

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