This adaptive planning tool has allowed Kleenex to react and respond to cold and flu outbreaks as they happen in the UK. This means marketing investment is maximized. In the 2012 cold and flu season, 96% of Kleenex UK’s media spend went to regions of the country suffering a live flu outbreak. Total sales increased 40% year-on-year in the first two months. That’s a staggering extra 432,499 boxes of tissues sold.

We analysed Google search trends over 18 months using words related to colds and flu. The data was compared to calls to Government health lines and doctor visits. This allowed us to build a model that predicted relevant flu outbreaks, at city level, in real time. So we knew where to focus our campaigns and when to launch them. This adaptive planning tool allowed us to make sure every campaign penny invested did not go to waste. To ensure swift reactions, we concentrated on tactical channels, focusing on radio, mobile, and digital display to get the message out quickly when an outbreak was occurring.

Every year, from October to February, Britons catch colds and get the flu. This is when Kleenex Balsam starts the campaign for its soothing range of tissues and balms. But 2011 was different. The UK had the warmest October for 100 years. Unusual weather had cancelled the ‘flu season, which ruined the launch of the Kleenex campaign. In this segment, timing is everything. We needed to know where and when flu outbreaks would occur so we could target media using ‘adaptive planning’. We achieved this by understanding a fundamental change in UK healthcare. Years ago, people with flu saw a doctor. Today, they seek help on Google. This search engine therefore has an accurate view of national and regional flu conditions in the UK. Not only did this mean we could target our campaign at a city experiencing an outbreak, we could time the campaign exactly as it happened.