Since Tropicana began making orange juice, it has been scientifically impossible to enjoy orange juice after brushing your teeth. This phenomenon is due to a foaming chemical found in toothpaste called SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate).

In the past year alone, Tropicana found over 20,000 social media complaints about how toothpaste made OJ taste. With some posts comparing it to "battery acid,” “crayons” and “like licking a floor.”

Our brief was to help make the Tropicana brand iconic again by solving this decades-old issue, a task that no orange juice brand had been able to do.

Instead of changing Tropicana to fix its toothpaste problem, we decided to change toothpaste.

We partnered with oral care specialists to design a specially-formulated toothpaste that would clean teeth without making orange juice taste bitter.

To do this the team developed a gel-based toothpaste that wouldn’t need the SLS foaming chemical that also ruins OJ. We called this feature “Maximum OJ Flavor Protection” as a nod to other toothpaste claims like “Cavity Protection” and “Tartar Control”.

We then researched, developed and tested multiple toothpaste variants with OJ drinkers to confirm that it worked, and discovered that a mint-flavor paired best with orange juice.

To build hype and demand, we made 200 limited-edition units of Tropicana Toothpaste and did an exclusive Instagram drop on National Brush Day.

Our audience was primarily social media, where in the last year alone over 20,000 posts had been made about orange juice being ruined by toothpaste.

To reach them, we designed the Tropicana Toothpaste launch to be social first. This meant creating teaser photos, GIFs and videos to build buzz. To connect even further with social audiences, we made promotional content with real Tweets describing the awful taste of Tropicana after brushing your teeth.

For mailing out the toothpaste, we designed an Insta-worthy kit that came with its own wood-carved toothbrush, the toothpaste and a coupon for free Tropicana.

Finally, instead of doing a traditional toothpaste launch at retail, we dropped the limited-edition Tropicana Toothpaste exclusively on Instagram for the people on social who clearly needed it most.

How does a juice brand break into the toothpaste industry?

First we partnered with oral care specialists to develop a gel-based toothpaste that wouldn't need the foaming chemical that also ruins orange juice. After a few months of researching, developing and testing multiple product variants with orange juice drinkers, we had created a mint-flavored toothpaste with "Maximum OJ Flavor Protection". Specially-formulated to clean teeth and protect the taste of orange juice.

For the launch of Tropicana Toothpaste, we used Instagram to build hype by releasing teaser photos and a drop date. Then on November 1 - National Brush Day - we gave out 200 limited-edition units of Tropicana Toothpaste to Tropicana followers on Instagram. Those who were able to get one were mailed their own kit that contained a toothbrush, the toothpaste and coupon for a free Tropicana.

In three weeks, the Tropicana Toothpaste launch had

- Nearly 4 Billion Earned Media Impressions

- 38% increase in purchase intent

- 18% increase in organic followers

- 10,000 Instagram engagements