Waukesha, Wisconsin – June 9, 2020 – Hamacher Resource Group, Inc. (HRG) has won a Communicator Award of Distinction in the marketing/promotion category for a Colgate Total® three-wave direct mail campaign to relaunch the Total toothpaste line to independent pharmacies. Sarah Stluka, business director at Salelytics, is the engagement and strategy director over the Colgate business for Colgate-Palmolive. Stluka stated, “Colgate-Palmolive was making significant investments to relaunch their Total toothpaste in early 2019. It was critical that I identified the right tactics to efficiently and effectively execute this transition across 10,000+ independent pharmacy retail doors, ensuring no shelf space was lost.”
Stluka continued, “What started out as an idea on paper, turned into a beautiful three-wave compilation that assisted pharmacists with education, conversion, planograms, and shelf tags. HRG’s output was best in class, and our team was able to successfully execute the Total reintroduction across independent pharmacy, while helping to educate and influence planogram decisions for trade-up opportunities.”
HRG is now a seven-time recipient of Communicator Awards, dating back to 2008. The company has won for print ads, direct marketing programs, CPG product packaging, video, and trade show exhibit materials. Angela Pinkstaff, director of business development at HRG, oversaw the Colgate Total campaign. Pinkstaff said, “Colgate values the independent pharmacy channel and the millions of consumers they serve, and that was apparent through this comprehensive campaign which covered every angle. From educating the pharmacist to providing all of the tools to execute the merchandising strategy in their store and draw attention to the product at shelf, we provided indie pharmacies with everything needed to promote the Total relaunch and boost their front-end sales with this popular oral care brand.”
The campaign was managed by Cheyenne Cardenas, and the creative team included long-time collaborators Bruce Boulieu as designer and Jen Johnston as copywriter. To aid the pharmacies in product selection, Kyle Lentz, a veteran category analyst, developed high-priority SKU sets based on three common oral care department sizes and created planograms to depict this.
The Communicator Awards are judged and overseen by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA). The AIVA is an invitation-only member-based organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media. Current membership represents a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms, including: GE Digital, Republica, Tinder, PureMatter, Tool of North America, Fast Company, Territory Studios, and many others. Entries are judged to evaluate distinction in creative work. In determining Excellence and Distinction Winners, entries are considered on their merits against a standard of excellence considering the category entered.