Gargling with salt water and other traditional rituals have been synonymous with sore throat remedies in Malaysia. Armed with knowledge that our competitors paid little attention to digital advertising channels and fueled by research that 14% of Malaysians claim to suffer from throat irritation more than once a week, we took the opportunity to be disruptive and create awareness for Betadine. The strategy was to challenge conventional thinking and to do this, we created a 3.30-minute made-for-YouTube video. We found a local comedian who was also a practicing doctor who would help debunk all common misconceptions. We targeted an urban audience of 'adopters' who were younger and didn't subscribe to commonplace "brand speak”. Knowing we could never afford to air a 3.30min TVC, YouTube and Facebook were the obvious choice to spread our message. Furthermore, digital channels do not fall within the restrictions imposed by the Malaysian-Advertising-Board. The campaign resulted in a 500% sales growth for the brand, over 3 million views on YouTube (far exceeding any other healthcare brand in Malaysia) and generated positive verbal currency which the brand continues to enjoy. The video was also seen over 2 million times on Facebook and received over 518 comments

The video was first made available on YouTube and Facebook on June 25th. The campaign ran for 6 months ending in November 2013. The video was promoted on Facebook via sponsored stories and YouTube via Pre-Roll ads to help get our initial audience that launched the viral forwarding effect. The execution of the video itself was what we believe made the ad successful. We used comedy to bring to life how silly traditional remedies to combat a sore throat was and made it clear that Betadine could help consumers in need. We spoke to consumers as if we knew exactly what was on their minds while staring at the screen. We made the video share worthy with its cheeky script and jokes. Compounded with many localized references, consumers knew that this was in fact a commercial made specifically for Malaysians that gave it even more credibility

The video has been viewed on YouTube over 3M times. On Facebook the video was seen over 2M times. Amazingly 9,722 people became fans of Betadine Malaysia. We did not plan for fans as we felt consumers would not be willing to like a mouth wash brandpage! The video itself received 518 comments on both Facebook and YouTube with 50% of them indicating interest to try Betadine. Things really went viral when 2 celebrities did a video endorsement of our product as part of educating their own fans of how Betadine had saved them from falling seriously ill - each with over 100k views. Local bloggers too started doing write ups of their experience with Betadine. With regards to sales, we first noticed pharmacies who previously placed orders once a month were making weekly orders which lead to monthly sales reaching a peak 500% vs pre campaign volumes.