Excedrin enjoys a high awareness of 99% in the U.S.

The challenge? Converting this awareness into sales and convincing consumers to purchase Excedrin, the head pain specialist, when they already have a generalist pain reliever, like Advil and Tylenol, at home.

How do we shift consumer behavior in the highly cluttered OTC space and convert generalists to specialists? With a campaign that demonstrates Excedrin truly understands the headaches of our time.

Headaches are personal and everyone experiences them uniquely. But we also know some headaches are caused by universal experiences.

Through social listening and consumer surveys, we identified the source of universally headache-inducing moments, the kinds of moments we all can relate to. Instead of just talking about them we found a brand-relevant way to bring them to consumers.

Enter Excedrin Limited Editions. Adulting. Bad Date. And Commuter.

Actual products branded to show that Excedrin doesn’t just get headaches, it gets headache sufferers.

For the first time, Excedrin created Limited Editions available for consumers to order at Excedrin.com. By limiting availability to its owned property, we found a way to create excitement around the exclusivity, and to capture first party consumer data—setting the groundwork for future DTC activations, which is another untapped opportunity for the OTC category.

We amplified the message via fan favorite, influential celebrities, mass reach social media announcements, targeted on-site sampling and out-of-home digital billboards.

We even extended the Limited Editions to 80+ digital versions that related to all your headache-inducing moments—from the Sunday Scaries to DIY failures and more.

We identified universal headache-inducing moments and created one-of-a-kind Limited Edition packaging to reflect those headaches. For the first time, consumers could order their own Commuter, Bad Date or Adulting Limited Edition.

The activation kicked-off by bringing relief to headache-inducing commuter hubs in NYC: The “Commuter” Edition was sampled at Penn Station, while digital billboards highlighted the SKU outside the Lincoln Tunnel. Simultaneously, celebrity spokespeople like Tan France and Antoni Porowski from Netflix’s Queer Eye shared their headache-worthy moments along with our Limited Editions with top-tier media and social media.

And in case consumers couldn’t relate to our physical editions, we created pre-roll videos articulating 80+ additional scenarios that were relevant to a consumer’s online environment. For example, a parent reading an article on foods for picky eaters might receive our “Why Won’t My Kid Eat This?” Excedrin Limited Edition, making the user experience even more personal with its digital editions.