Colgate is an established name among dental professionals. But we wanted to go further and make Colgate an indispensable part of every dentist’s day—whether they were educating patients or educating themselves. How? By building a digital tool available on their mobile phone or iPad to use anytime, anywhere as part of their new digital workflow.

We designed a first-of-its-kind mobile site that delivers on two urgent customer needs: educating patients on oral health and educating themselves on our products. One half of our site delivers compelling video modules for chair-side patient education, giving patients the training they need to take care of their oral health. The other half is geared toward the dentist, with easy access to product features, and links to continuing education.

This best-in-class mobile experience has solidified the brand’s role as partners in oral health and made Colgate stand out as a leader in digital excellence.

To deliver a best-in-class solution, our thinking needed to be grounded in real user insight and solve a real user need, so we set about researching and understanding what was most important to our market, dental professionals. We wanted to understand their daily routines, their mindset and how that affected their interactions with digital, to ensure that our product could make a difference and make their job easier.

After immersing ourselves in the lives of our users, we identified two very clear and specific use cases, within which they would use their smartphone during their day; either they were with a patient or they were on their own. We took this on board and crafted user journeys that served up highly relevant and bespoke information that really captured the different needs of these two scenarios, customizing page hierarchy and personalizing content accordingly. A task-orientated UX approach, with the user at the center, ensured that every interaction had a purpose, slimming down over 500 pages into less than 100.

The intuitive nature, slick navigation and clear fulfilment of user needs was groundbreaking, and with a mobile-first approach, we crafted content that fit their browsing habits. Using a combination of engaging video, interactive charts and immersive galleries to help dental professionals educate their patients as well as strengthen their own knowledge and skills, we reinforced Colgate’s brand equity as a leader in technology and innovation. No other Oral Care Company has attempted this to date.

The roll out was accompanied by a full-blown, multi-media awareness campaign. Touch points to build awareness included a digital media campaign, promotions at dental trade shows, sales representative detailing and interactive research and learning in dental schools. We launched in the US in May of 2015, and is currently being adapted in 15 additional markets in 2016.