Johnson & Johnson's flagship baby brand is launching its biggest ever social-media effort to reach millennial moms. Initially, it will be focused on a promise to remove controversial ingredients from products in what the company calls a move toward "transparency communications."
"Our Promise," the first of what will ultimately be more than 40 videos in the program, launches today, featuring Johnson's Baby brand employees, J&J colleagues and their families making origami storks from paper where they've written their individual commitments to consumers, often along the lines of putting safety first.
The idea was inspired by a Japanese legend that "when you make 1,000 origami cranes it signifies a hope granted and a promise fulfilled," J&J notes in the video. "We are moms, dads, parents just like you," according to text in the video. "We heard your concern about certain ingredients in our products. Although always safe, for your peace of mind, we removed them."
"We recognized that in order to connect with the millennial mom, we really needed to be very transparent," said Kelly Gottfried, marketing director of Johnson's Baby in an interview. She emphasized that "the products were always safe. But as a mom I understand you hear certain buzzwords about certain ingredients, and that causes concerns at any level."
J&J has made similar commitments to remove such ingredients from products for adults, but focused on removing them from baby and infant products first two years ago.
The video, Ms. Gottfried said, has gone over well with bloggers it's been shared with, some of whom were moved to tears.
Employees also will be asked to share the video through their own social-networking channels as the video is publicized internally, said spokeswoman Lori Dolginoff. "It will be a direct call to action."
Johnson's will also be sharing through its YouTube channel and Facebook page and backing the videos with paid advertising on Facebook and Youtube and in print.
BBDO, New York led developed the insight behind the campaign as well as the media advertising, Ms. Gottfried said, with J3 handling media planning and buying, Crowd Tap handles the influencer-marketing campaign, and a wide range of agencies and production companies to create the videos.
The initial "Our Promise" video was developed by RF Binder in partnership with Light of Day Productions, with an original score by William Goodrum, whose work is frequently in feature films. Other content creators in upcoming portions of the series include Generate, B2+ and CAA Wigs.
Subsequent portions of the campaign include a series called "MythConceptions" in which YouTube bloggers have created humorous videos debunking myths, and a "Did You Know" series that, among other things, points out that babies don't have a blink reflex (hence the need for "No More Tears" shampoo). Other portions will include open video forums for moms to share questions and answers and a series of vignettes about pivotal moments in preparing for childbirth or during the first few weeks of parenthood.
