Sweet menthol blast of success

the challenge

Jakemans showed steady sales but faced shrinking brand awareness among an aging, downmarket consumer base. Distribution was concentrated in discounters.

Lanes Healthcare acquired the brand with two main business objectives - Increase sales and reduce its heavy reliance on price promotion.

our approach

Deliver great creative cut through with an engaging new identity for the brand based on its Edwardian heritage.

Make a small comms budget work exceptionally hard, using big media and sensibly scaled TV advertising to turbocharge Jakemans’ success.

Raise awareness and tell the brand story. Leverage this to gain listings and demand a reduction in promotions.

In-house production and hard negotiation with an animation company to make the money go as far as possible.

Concentrate spend in Jakemans’ strongest regions at first. As sales grow, expand day-parts, go national on TV & add other media.

commercial success

In three years, Jakemans has grown from a £2m to a £12m brand.

Consumers now perceive the brand as traditional, quality, established and trustworthy - as well as being fun and quirky.

Spontaneous awareness more than doubled from 4% to 10%.

Prompted awareness more than doubled from 12% to 31%. Sales still rocketing – up 61% since 2011 & up 11% YOY in the last year (IRI).

Percentage of discounted sales reduced by 27% in the past year alone (IRI).