Louse business is big business. Lice have been spreading like wildfire in Sweden lately, resulting in unprecedented sales. In 2007 alone, the Swedish state-owned pharmacy’s takings for lice treatment totalled more than 47 million SEK.

ACO’s challenge here was to pitch a completely new treatment-solution to a conservative market that preferred chemical treatment, and where the main competitor had the full backing of the Swedish Medical Products Agency.Our task was to quickly plan and implement a campaign that employed multiple channels simultaneously and that would capitalise on the scarcity of information on treatments. The campaign aimed at increasing awareness of an unknown category of lice formula. We had to position the product ahead of the competition.

The campaign "The Super Louse" succeeded brilliantly thanks to thorough planning and excellent timing; achieving dramatic media penetration, driving the category forward and raising sales by more than 100% within a three-week timeframe.

PR campaign: 1. The publication of The Institute of Disease Prevention’s was thought to occur around the same time as the start of school, autumn 2008. A few minutes after the publication was released, we had Paranix send out their own complementary press release.2. Advisory functions: pharmacists and school teachers are the most important sources of information to parents, it was therefore vital that they were prepared.

They receives the brochure ”Lousy reading”. An article about resistant lice and treatments was sent in newsletter to pharmacies. We also sent a VIP package to relevant blogs.

3. Quick information through lusguiden.se (The Lousy Guide)When news broke there would be a gap that needed bridging between problem (resistant lice) and solution. Parents would likely get online to find information. At the same time as the publication was released, our site was already up. We also had cooperation with relevant websites to link the site.

Sales of ACO Paranix increased by 100% in three weeks.On September 3rd and 4th, news of the Super Louse could be seen on all major channels of communication: TT, SVT, SR, TV4, DN, SvD, Göteborgs-Posten, Sydsvenskan, Aftonbladet, Expressen as well as news on a local level. It could also be found in lifestyle (family), medical and web TV publications. All of the biggest media channels in Sweden, from the biggest papers to the morning shows, covered the story within two days.The category of Mechanical Treatment of lice was mentioned in the majority of articles and segments. Visually, Paranix was specifically shown in 10 segments, among others, in the 10 o’clock late news on TV4, as well as with extremely popular hostess Tilde de Paula at News Morning on Sunday September 14th.