Danone takes cues from pharma marketing as GLP-1 changes American appetites

According to CMO Linda Bethea, Danone launched Oikos Protein Shakes this month backed by media spending on paid search, paid social, digital display, influencer marketing, retail media and connected TV (CTV). The “ambient” (industry code for non-refrigerated) shake targets consumers who seek more protein in their diet, including patients using GLP-1 drugs.

She said the company had shifted the “majority” of its linear TV investments into CTV and online video in the last two years, but didn’t provide financial details. “That’s where our target consumers are consuming their media today,” Bethea added.

Oikos has focused investment in traditional paid search like Google, as well as in e-commerce contexts like Amazon – which is a growing sales channel for the brand. In December, prior to this latest campaign, it also built out a website with nutritional information aimed at GLP-1 users.

The hope is to influence consumers’ research into foods they might have alongside GLP-1, as well as their choices closer to the point of purchase, via both paid and organic search.

Oikos has also begun to take hints from the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry’s approach to marketing.

Its influencer strategy, managed in-house, includes creators focusing on medical, nutrition and fitness advice – something pharma brands have increasingly spent on in recent years as they updated traditional marketing strategies for a social media world.

“No one understands influencer marketing more than healthcare brands,” said Carly Kuper, svp public relations and corporate communications at CMI Media Group. “The power of peer to peer influencing, of physician to patient influencing, it’s always existed in the space. It just wasn’t on social media.”

And Danone has begun experimenting with investments in so-called “patient portal” inventory – digital out of home screens located in doctor’s waiting rooms across the U.S., with the aim of positioning the new yogurt drink as a product adjacent to GLP-1 medication.

It’s a tactic typically used by both pharma brands, and companies selling products that dovetail with medical treatment, such as baby formula and skincare brands.

“We just finished our test and learn there, and we’ll be looking to potentially scale up,” said Bethea, who declined to share the results of the experimental phase.

That’s a path several consumer brands might follow in coming months, as they launch or reposition products adjacent to GLP-1 usage. French agency holding company Havas, which numbers Sanofi and AstraZeneca among its pharma clients, has been offering crossover advice to both healthcare and consumer brands via a dedicated GLP-1 unit launched last year.

“Every brand needs a GLP-1 strategy,” said Chloe Depiesse, managing director and GLP-1 consultancy lead at Havas Health. She told Digiday the unit had performed strategic consulting work for several advertisers in the food and beverage, beauty and life sciences sectors since its launch.

For brands launching new (or freshly repositioned) products aimed at this growing market, Depiesse noted that paid search and creator marketing had emerged as preferred media channels.

“Search is definitely naturally a place where we see a lot of opportunity and where we would recommend allocating a certain amount of money to our clients… because naturally, people with with new needs, with new lifestyles, new consumption habits, are turning to to the internet for for advice and for research,” she said.

Borrowing from the healthcare marketing playbook means playing by its “highly restricted” rules too, noted Ari Wexler, svp and group media lead at WPP health media agency CMI. Brands must be cautious about the creators they work with, given the potential risk of spreading medical misinformation. And in lieu of the targeting methodology advertisers are able to use elsewhere, here they must rely on educated guesswork.

It’s a tradeoff worth making, though, given the potential of finding a new consumer audience, with as many as one in eight Americans now using some form of the drug.

GLP-1 medications represent both opportunity and risk for brands. On the one hand, the appetite-suppressing effects of medications like Wegovy and Mounjaro might come to hurt snacking brands by depressing demand; a 2024 Cornell University and Numerator study found GLP-1 patients cut grocery spending 6% within six months of using the drug, and Hershey’s CEO and chairman Michelle Buck told analysts that the drug’s rapid takeup among consumers was weighing on the confectionary giant’s financial performance in November. 

On the other hand, folks using the drugs often look to top up their protein intake so they don’t lose too much muscle mass. It’s contributed to a broader consumer focus on high-protein foods and dietary choices that brands are paying close attention to.

Mars specialty brand Kevin’s Natural Foods has also reported a rise in sales that it’s credited to demand for protein, driven in part by GLP-1 usage; Arby’s has looked to lean into the trend by adding more items heavy on red meat to its menu; while Smoothie King launched a line of GLP-1 smoothies in autumn.

Bethea hopes both the demand for high-protein foods and dietary changes prompted by GLP-1 usage are needs that Oikos’ new yogurt can address. 

“The food and beverage industry is at a tipping point in America,” she said. “Interest in health and wellness is at an all time high. This is a fantastic opportunity for us.”