Haleon

Data consolidation and dissemination

When Haleon decided to build an in-house social intelligence unit in 2019, it needed a solution that could track its own brands along with more than 70 competitors across seven categories. Along with depth and breadth of data, it also needed speed that didn’t sacrifice quality. Haleon chose Meltwater to help set up a new operation that could provide competitive intelligence and recommendations to various divisions within the company. 

“To make sure we not only capture but, crucially, analyze the data and make it actionable for the business, we require technology capable of facilitating that scale,” says Danny Gardner, Haleon’s Social Intelligence Lead. “Meltwater technology as well as its history of working with large, multinational businesses is a huge advantage for us.” Getting its social intelligence unit up and running quickly let the Social Media Insights & Analytics team focus on building organization-wide trust in social data. 

And as Haleon’s needs evolved, so did its partnership: Gardner collaborates directly with Meltwater’s user experience team to consistently refine the platform. “I think that one of the biggest things that people like about Meltwater is that it has strong data integrity, great access, and is an intuitive tool to use,” he explains. “Certain things take two clicks to reach and not four clicks the way they would in other tools.”

Audience analysis to drive sales

Reaching beyond basic brand tracking, Haleon uses Meltwater’s social listening solution to identify and track specific customer and healthcare provider communities online. The resulting data not only informs Haleon’s customer-facing communications but also benefits the company’s sales teams. 

That was the case when the Social Media Insights & Analytics team’s research revealed that dentists play less of a role in informing and advising consumers than the sales team previously thought. Instead, the data it collected — showing that hygienists demonstrate a much higher level of influence online — convinced the dental department to rethink its targeting approach. As a result, Haleon brands, including Sensodyne, Parodontax, and Pronamel, updated their partnership strategies and widened their pool of promotional partners.

Without Meltwater, that level of consumer research study would have cost Haleon’s communications team a minimum of $50,000 with a five-week turnaround time. With Meltwater, the company gets those insights in just five days, adding up to an 80% increase in efficiency. “Today, our brands are more competitive as we provide them with insights no one else in the business can,” says Gardner. “And we do it fast.”

Brand strategy dictated by social intelligence

Any legacy brand entering social media faces the challenge of finding and connecting with its audience. Haleon's Preparation-H brand faced the extra obstacle of consumer hesitancy to talk about gastrointestinal health products. The Social Media Insights & Analytics team relied on Meltwater to find and monitor existing conversations about the brand while identifying new opportunities to connect with its customers and fans. 

“It’s not only about deciding whether to join social media. It’s also about knowing which platforms and what content to invest in,” explains Gardner. The social listening data he and his team uncovered with Explore, Meltwater’s social listening platform, proved the brand-strengthening potential for Preparation-H’s social media presence. It also paved the way for the brand’s voice and strategy of leaning into the more light-hearted side of consumer conversations that continuously and organically pop up about the brand. 

Following the lead of Meltwater’s data-driven insights, Preparation-H grew its social media following and presence on its target platforms. Mentions increased by more than 100%, while engagement increased 272% year over year. “We’ve seen huge success online, all because we listened to our consumers and were able to analyze these conversations in a logical and structured way,” Gardner confirms. “Now, with the right tactics and the right awareness, Preparation-H is a beloved brand on social media.”