Our solution
The brand already had an established persona, but we knew we had to push the boundaries to make our social content truly resonate. We introduced playfulness as a characteristic that would encompass the brand’s tone of voice specifically on social. This would retain a wellness focus and avoid being insensitive or tactless, with the aim of taking the stuffiness out of the data-heavy health sector.
We built a strategy around four key content pillars: clearing confusion, giving relatable advice, pushing timely and relevant sales comms, and making wellness an inclusive topic.
Holland & Barrett’s heritage, experience and science-led positioning was key to clearing confusion around health and wellness, so we took things back to basics for our Instagram vox pop series. Borrowing one of social’s most popular formats, we took to the streets to quiz shoppers of all ages and genders on their women’s health knowledge. Although periods and menopause are everyday conversation topics in trusted circles, the series addressed a knowledge gap around why periods happen, hormones and menopause symptoms, in a way that was enlightening and never condescending.
As for relatable advice, we platformed the brand’s trusted experts for our Experts Explain/React social content series, providing an entrypoint into the latest health trend whilst adding value to the conversation by ranking these trends as actually beneficial or fads better off avoided.
We elevated the sales experience by providing content that was timely and relevant. For example, our 2024 TikTok roundup of spring beauty must-haves featuring Holland & Barrett clearly struck a chord with beauty fans, hitting 250k views, while our recipe-style TikTok content promoting the new manuka honey range hit a massive 2 million views.
Finally, we enriched our audience’s lives by using our channels as a celebration of wellness for everyone. Echoing the brand’s purpose, “Adding Quality Years to Life”, our Own Every Day campaign helped to champion a better future for people by addressing inclusivity in health. The campaign’s key messaging challenged negative perceptions of the word “hormonal”, uniting fans with an original soundbite that empowered them to share the ups and downs of their menstrual cycle. By partnering with creators across a spectrum of relevant specialisms like skincare, fitness and the menopause, we were able to reach our target audiences with 10 million total views and tackle taboo topics that remain underrepresented in the current women’s health conversation.
Across social, our comments regularly expressed positive feedback, like “never knew we needed this video”, “great resource!”, “Love that you’re sharing this info!” and “[The] first video I’ve watched…giving proper advice about health”. This sentiment signalled that our content was delivering on its purpose, cementing our place as a trusted health and wellness resource on social.
