vVARDIS
LAUNCHING A GLOBAL, DIGITAL-NATIVE HEALTH & LUXURY E-COMMERCE BRAND AT SPEED
AGENCY: R/GA
ROLE: Creative Director, Copy
v-v-wha?
vVARDIS is an ambitious Swiss oral health startup with a secret weapon: They’ve developed a proprietary technology, called WX Formula, that just might be the biggest innovation in oral care since the introduction of fluoride over a half-century ago. While other whiteners strip away and potentially damage enamel over time, WX Formula actually mimics your teeth’s natural mineralization process, enabling them to grow stronger and more protected while they’re getting whiter. Just as importantly, the whitening cultivated by WX isn’t the blinding, bleached, phony, game-show-host-looking kind of white — it’s a white that’s natural and healthy. The way bright, healthy teeth ought to look.
THE ASK
The founders approached R/GA with a simple request: As they readied their suite of products for FDA approval in the U.S., they wanted to quickly optimize and improve the functionality of their e-commerce site. But, when it turned out they had no defined audience or market research, nor any positioning or strategy, not to mention very little brand identity, the ask suddenly mushroomed into a soup-to-nuts overhaul of their entire brand ecosystem. R/GA’s newly-minted Health practice stepped into the role of strategic partner to help vVARDIS build a global brand and scale it quickly.
THE ANSWER
We elevated the brand beyond the everyday oral care category to occupy a premium space at the intersection of luxury, wellness, and health — based on the insight that oral health is the gateway to whole body health. So, good oral hygiene is about more than just whiter teeth, it’s about feeling healthy and luxuriant, inside and out.
From here, we launched with a fully integrated go-to-market approach that included a global e-commerce experience, along with a multi-channel media campaign across video, social, print, custom content and premium publishers, plus CRM, live events, and more,
e-commerce experience
The success of launching as a DTC brand would hinge on developing a frictionless e-commerce experience that delivered on all aspects of the brand positioning, one highlighting premium quality and all-natural ingredients, but backed up by rock-solid science to educate first-time visitors and inspire them to build an oral health regimen.
To read at your own pace, view a static version of the site homepage here or scan some excerpts below.
The e-commerce site needed to do more than just look beautiful. It also had to deliver to a frictionless narrative experience that pulled visitors through to conversion, explaining and inspiring along the way, and ultimately seeding repeat visits.
PRINT & DIGITAL
Simultaneously, we kicked off a full-funnel launch campaign, starting with print and online paid ads that introduced the brand and heroized its flagship product: Aletsch Instant Whitening Gel.
SOCIAL
Our campaign especially leaned into social platforms, where we created a series of product-focused ads designed to drive conversion. At the same time, we designed a separate series of ads designed to educate and inform our audience about the revolutionary science behind the products..
BRAND MANIFESTO & VOICE PRINCIPLES
Through the process of developing the campaign, we also helped the vVARDIS founders more clearly identify and articulate the brand’s values and purpose, which were brought to life in a Brand Manifesto and then unpacked further in Voice Principles that provided the foundation for a comprehensive Master Brand Voice Guide.
THE RESULTS HAD EVERYBODY SMILING
We put the entire brand ecosystem and e-commerce launch together in the space of just a few short months, but you’d never know it from the numbers. The launch was an unqualified success, including:
+50% New Weekly Customers
+1,801% Increase in Site Users
+1,577% Increase in Site Revenue
2x Increase in Conversion Rate
+70% Increase in Average Order Value
+122% Increase in Return Customer Purchases