When a winter illness hits, getting better is rarely a one-step process. There’s the treatment of the cold or cough itself, the congestion that lingers and the journey to feeling like yourself again. Each stage needs something different.
For Olbas, this created a chance to tell a much bigger story. We created Road to Recovery, a campaign to show how the Olbas portfolio supports people through every stage of winter illnesses, while introducing media to the newest addition to the range: Olbas Pelargonium Herbal Cough & Cold Tablets.
Our aim was to move the conversation on from single moments of symptom relief to the whole road back to health, including the part most of us skip: rest.
The Challenge
Olbas is a trusted name in winter health, and Olbas Oil is the UK’s number one decongestant oil. The challenge was to show there’s far more to the brand than one hero product.
We wanted media and consumers to see and understand the whole Olbas range and its role, from treating the first signs of a cough or cold to easing the congestion that follows.
The launch of Olbas Pelargonium Herbal Cough & Cold Tablets added a new stage to that journey, and a chance to introduce media to Pelargonium as an NHS-recommended ingredient.
The Idea
We put recovery, not illness, at the heart of the campaign. The Olbas Winter Recovery Report used consumer insight to explore people’s attitudes towards winter illness, sick days and the road back to feeling well.
Collaborating with NHS GP and Olbas spokesperson, Dr Roger Henderson, his expert commentary and practical advice helped to explain how people can navigate their recovery. Together, the research and expert insight gave us a fresh, topical conversation that showed Olbas’s role beyond any single symptom or product.
We brought The Olbas Winter Recovery Report to life at our Road to Recovery event, where journalists, influencers and key opinion leaders became immersed in the different roles Olbas plays through the recovery journey. At its heart was a restorative sound bath focused on rest as a form of recovery. The event also let us introduce Olbas Pelargonium Herbal Cough & Cold Tablets and explain Pelargonium’s role in treating cough and cold symptoms.
Recovery isn’t only about what you take; rest is a form of recovery in its own right, yet it’s often the first thing we give up when life is busy. The campaign’s research explored attitudes to sick days and getting back to normal, so rest was the natural focus to put at the heart of the experience.
Through a restorative sound bath, our guests got to experience rest as part of recovery rather than simply reading about it. It also put the Olbas range in its real context: products that help with symptoms, alongside the time and space the body needs to recover.
The event was the centrepiece of an integrated campaign spanning national, consumer and trade media, social content and earned storytelling. Consumer insight, expert authority, an immersive experience and earned media all worked together to make the launch work harder for the whole portfolio.
