Wild deodorant – Launched by 10 Yetis

Introduction

This is one of my favourite case studies from our more recent history. Wild is a brand of environmentally friendly, cruelty-free deodorants and a generally beautiful brand. Since its launch in 2020 (after a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) launch in 2019) Wild has gone on to become one of the break-out most successful brands in the UK.

As well as selling direct to consumer via its website (wearewild.com), customers can also find the brand in retailers such as Waitrose, Ocado, Holland and Barrett, Sainsbury’s and Boots (to name just a few). As you can guess, our public relations launch campaign (eventually, read on!) went well, although it was an absolute roller-coaster.

The situation

One of the reasons that Wild is one of my favourite public relations launch campaigns is because of how it came to be and the timing. In theory, the timing could not have been any worse, as the initial conversations came during the first UK COVID 19 lockdown in March 2020.

I remember that I was using one of my allocated daily exercise outings with my kids when I got a call from the Marketing Director of Wild. They were debating the merits of launching the business at a time when the UK was in a lockdown and at the start of a downward economic spiral.

I could see how this would give the brand a very strong media hook and especially at a time when news outlets were searching for rare, positive stories. In addition to this, there was the obvious aspect of the brand representing everything that the modern consumer was searching for; credible, ethical and environmentally-friendly products.

Any product that can claim to be a world-first (in the case of Wild, the world’s first zero-plastic deodorant refill) will usually make waves if the execution is spot on. Add to that a bit of “plant-based” here and a “biodegradable” & “compostable” there, and you’re on to a real winner.

The third media hook was that this was a truly disruptive product at a time where too many companies had tried to claim being disruptive. To be given the chance to work with something so innovative was a fantastic opportunity.

In my head, the result of all of these media hooks meant that this was a winning campaign that could be delivered using a mix of digital and traditional PR activities.

What we did

Once we had the commercials agreed, we set about creating a media plan and target list.

This is where the first hiccup came in. Covid had meant that even journalists were being put on furlough. This resulted in the journalists left working covering larger areas than ever before and not always in their usual knowledge areas.

This meant putting accurate media lists together was far harder than in normal times and took much longer.

The second immediate issue was that everyone was working from home and whilst we had a large number of products available for journalist reviews, in the early stages of the pandemic many media did not want to give out their home addresses, no matter how well they knew you. This made journalist product reviews much harder and, annoyingly, a much longer process.

This all sounds very doom and gloom, but the reality is that I would not be writing this case study had it all gone wrong.

What began as a three month launch campaign ended up taking nearly double that time and although this was frustrating for both us and Wild, the hard work paid off. The coverage that landed was really on-target and not only drove direct sales, but also gave the company the media credibility with consumers and trade-buyers that it has subsequently built on.

To be stocked in places like Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Ocado and alike less than two years after launch is a massive achievement by the brand and we are proud to have played a very small part in that.

The results

Profiles came in from all the key target titles such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Stylist, Sheerluxe, PopSugar, Red Magazine, Glamour, Refinery29, The Sun, Daily Express, The Independent and more. We secured more than 50 different pieces of media coverage with a mix of online and offline articles.

As well as the consumer media success, the coverage also came from B2B and retail titles like The Grocer and Retail Week.