Retailer awareness & education key to launch of IQOS.

Philip Morris

Task

Mercieca were responsible for managing Philip Morris’ biggest ever integrated trade communications campaign in the UK, providing wide-spread awareness and in-depth retailer education during the lead-up and post the menthol ban, a critical time for the brand to achieve distribution.

What we did

Over several months, we worked closely with trade media partners to ensure key messages were highly visible at all times and to ensure in-depth advice is always on hand to retailers to help them understand both the opportunity that IQOS provides them but also the risks they face if they are not adequately prepared for the ban.

The campaign featured PR, print and digital advertising, emails, webinars, retailer testimonials, wholesale POS and support materials for the Heetwave stocking incentive program.

Peter Nixon, PMI’s Managing Director, called the campaign “Very impressive and hugely effective”.

Impact

Although the issues retailers faced during the Covid-19 lockdown caused some delays in retailers taking action, the campaign led to unprecedented website traffic and within a few months PMI had achieved account sign-ups in excess of their targets.