Sensodyne Pronamel launch - Gaining and maintaining a first-mover advantage

With diets changing, the growing problem for people’s teeth has become acid wear. GSK identified a gap in the market and created Sensodyne Pronamel to tackle this emerging condition, the first new toothpaste category for 24 years. Sensodyne faced the challenge of making the public aware of the risk to their teeth from ‘invisible’ acid wear and launched a campaign that used dentists as educators and advocates of the product. Using a TV heavy strategy that gave the feeling of public health announcements and linking acid wear to healthy eating, Sensodyne built and maintained their leadership of this new category, reaching a brand penetration of just over 6% in the UK and US, equating to around 10 million people purchasing the product.