Benylin Cough Carriage

Background

Benylin is the UK’s best selling cough medicine1, but operates in a crowded market with little exciting news for consumers or journalists. Benylin had launched individual dose sachets and wanted consumers to reappraise the brand and create news for the 2005/6 winter season.

Activities

M&F carried out a survey revealing that commuters are fed up with other people coughing on the train, and created the UK’s first cough-free zone in a Benylin-branded train carriage. The survey results were released ahead of the train launch, where journalists from national consumer media and the pharmacy and grocery trade press were invited to sit in the Cough-Free Carriage at Fenchurch Street Station. An online competition to win an iPod Shuffle drove traffic to the Benylin website.

Impact

It’s not often that coughing hits the front page of the papers.  The campaign contributed significantly to sales growth of Benylin and exceeded all media targets. The campaign won the innovation category in the 2006 Pharmaceutical Marketing Effectiveness Awards.

1. IRI MAT 25th March 2007