The Creativity Ain’t Dead Series
Part 1: CreaTEETHity
Many norms within dental marketing render it tediously formulaic at times. The wholesome family scenes, smug mirror smiles, before-and-after visuals, vibrant lifestyles and all-round CLEAN living that are used to symbolise the impact of an effective toothpaste through the lens of CONFIDENCE. It’s understandable, but not especially distinctive. Certain symbols are regularly chosen to drive desirability – think pearls, oysters, flickers of light and mint leaves.
And the performance marketing / on-pack follow-through from these utopian ads is often bold claims about the % of dentists that recommend the product, how much better it is than XXX, how quickly it can whiten your teeth, or what % of bacteria it eliminates.
Things get interesting when dental products go beyond these marketing tropes and tactically demonstrate their features and benefits in more unconventional ways.
If strength is a key product benefit / brand asset, then going all-out to showcase that can spark fresh creativity. Formula Toothcare, via Ogilvy Indonesia, created this fantastic billboard adaptation to show how their product can strengthen teeth!
This, from Colgate, is an inventive reminder for people to brush their teeth at exactly the right time.
This one for ExpertWhitening in South Africa, via Canvas Cape Town, uses infrared lighting to visualise how people could look with a ‘60% whiter smile’.
Orthodontists have really gone to town with their straightening ideas. Some nice little creativities here from Altschul Orthodontics, Indiana, Dr. John Mullally, Michigan, and KQV Germany.
But you needn’t resort to such on-street, off-the-beaten-track marketing lengths to stand out from the crowd. Colgate, with the agency Cerebro Y&R Panama, proved that focusing on lesser-used imagery and a more subtle approach to product benefits could help their dental floss cut through the competitors.
It’s not just your regular toothpaste products that can get in on the creative dental marketing action. Burger King’s ingenious WHOPPER toothpaste spot by Buzzman Paris takes many of the clichéd tropes and stuffs them into a 1-minute ad with minty-fresh copy highlights like “flame-grilled micro-granules” and “keep your mouth whopper-fresh 24-7”.
https://youtu.be/-fCRqsQBvPY?si=n03yJibZ-3l5Hy9Z
