Kleenex leverages hay fever - #atishoo - season via social media

[Tanya Holloway]

Those living in the UK at the moment will know that it is prime hay fever season – the weather is up and down and there has also been a lot of windy weather.

Of course this is the prime time for health companies to target hay fever sufferers, and a recent example of this is Kleenex’s social media efforts to dispel hay fever myths amongst consumers.

Kleenex has been using Twitter and also a hashtag, #atishoo, to map the severity of hay fever sufferers around the UK. Using this twitter handle, tweeters rate the scale of their hay fever and list their postcode to help populate the map featured on Kleenex’s website.

Kleenex claims this map will help them to find out how much hayfever really affects the British public – ‘no-one is cataloguing exactly how much the British public are suffering on a day-to-day basis’.

As a hay fever sufferer of years gone by, I do feel for hay fever ‘sufferers’ out there, however I do not see the value for us, the sufferers, in generating this map, other than what areas of the continent to avoid on a windy day! It is a cool idea but it is not something that consumers would really go back to check on the progress of the map – it is a one off use type of application, a novelty. Furthermore, Kleenex promote hay fever tips below this map, from a Professor Emberlin, however once clicked on there is no mention of this professor, or their authority to provide tips on hay fever. A Google search shows that this is indeed Professor Jean Emberlin, director of the National Pollen Research Unit, a highly credible source. Kleenex should be promoting this source readily on their website as social media heavily relies on reliable sources like these to ensure cut through with consumers.

Kleenex has also been reaching out via their Twitter handle (which was hard to find via normal search functions) to dispel the myths of hay fever and send rescue packs to sufferers who tweet their misfortunes of having the condition. This proves to be a bit more valuable than the map, however I would be curious as to know what is included in the rescue kit (just a handy pack of tissues?) and where they draw the line of when hay fever season ends – indeed some sufferers have the condition for longer than others. They will need to manage their consumers’ expectations around the provision of these rescue kits.

Kleenex has also been running this campaign via Facebook however this page also proved very hard to find. The page URL is ‘kleenexuk’ and the page is titled Kleenex Let It Out. This phrase was not related or linked to any searches I did on Kleenex and hay fever. I think Kleenex need to fine tune the SEO terms for Facebook and Twitter so that it is easier for consumers to search and join in the conversation.

It is not all bad. I do applaud Kleenex in that they seem to be actively engaging with their audiences across these two social media platforms very regularly - there are posts and tweets a few times a day. This is so important in brands’ management of social media platforms to ensure that the audience is constantly engaged, and for consumers to feel there is value in their interaction with the brand.

[Tanya Holloway]

After posting this article to twitter Kleenex UK contacted me and asked if I would like to receive a hayfever rescue kit. I agreed, and received the kit 10 days after they contacted me - this is obviously not seen to be an emergency rescue kit!  I was impressed with the rescue kit, as it included more contents than just a packet of tissues. It seems as though they have thought of everything for hay fever sufferers. I won't give a list of all the contents in this post in case hay fever suffering readers want to get a kit for themselves, but I have included two photos of the rescue kit in this post. Even though I now have a rescue kit I still uphold my other thoughts included in my original post on this topic, and will continue to watch this campaign with interest.