The Swiss inventor Johan Heinerich Bachmann had deep knowledge of herbs and their use in developing natural remedies for medicinal use and also in insecticides as natural repellant. Johan Heinerich prepared several mixtures from herbs and alongwith the help of his daughter Sylvia established Orphea, an insecticide brand in 1920. Over the years Orphea added several products to its repertoire and became one of the go to brands when it came to insecticides and repellants. The manufacturers strictly maintained natural herbal ingredients in their products make them safe for the environment and children and adults alike. Orphea thus created a niche for itself as a Natural insect Repellant .
Orphea in Italy
In 1995 Orphea forayed into the Italian market with their already accomplished range of products. They were able to initially get a foothold in the repellant market and thereafter have only progressed with the help of several marketing campaigns over the years. One such campaign in Milan drew my intention and motivated me to write this post today purely on the basis of its creativity, its ability to deliver the message so loud and clear, seize the attention of its consumers and eventually help spike sales.
Post the spring season in Milan, there was a problem of insects and moths roaming the air, which had been causing inconvenience to the people at large. To address the issue Orphea came up with a product Orphea 40 and engaged Publicis ( a leading advertising agency in Italy ) to launch an interesting campaign to market it.
The Billboard Campaign
The Agency hired a large billboard in a prominent location. They placed a large image of a bottle of Orphea 40 on the left side of the board and applied an invisible transparent Glue in the shape of a spray emanating from the bottle of Orphea 40. After a few days the idea behind the campaign began to reflect. Outdoor insects like flies, mosquitoes, moths etc started getting stuck on the glue pasted on the billboard signifying the efficacy of the Orphea 40 spray. As the days elapsed more and more insects got stuck and the Agency claimed that a total of 2,30,000 insects were trapped on the board.
A Creative Success
This unusual and out of the box campaign garnered attention of thousands of people who passed by the Billboard and were more than curious to know as to how the insects had got stuck on the board. This curiosity generated massive publicity for the product. People decided to buy the product immediately, impressed by the effectiveness of the campaign in highlighting the use of the product in such an innovative manner. Consequently there was a large in increase in sales of Orphea 40 and the campaign became a case study in Marketing Strategies.
Creativity is all encompassing …230000 bugs, just couldn’t escape.
A unique campaign strategy narrated by the author of the blog. The effect was a colossal extension of the sales of their product. Riz has worked on a stirring business story…
Thank you Ami.