Relaunching an insecticide with major bravado

Industry

Specialty Chemical, Pest Control

Services

Advertising & Campaigns

Background

In 2019, FMC launched Scion® Insecticide with UVX® Technology. Formulated with an innovative active ingredient and heat-resistant “UVX® Technology,” Scion was positioned as a premium broad-spectrum product — a straightforward but obvious upgrade to other perimeter-use insecticides on the market. In theory, a stand-out offering in a crowded market of look-alike solutions should have been a slam dunk.

The challenges

Unfortunately, the crowded perimeter insecticide market meant Scion didn’t get the attention FMC was hoping for, despite newer science and consistently superior results. Scion was more concentrated than legacy products, too… but that had a deleterious sales effect — sticker shock from a higher price per bottle.

Pest and lawn management professionals were simply too entrenched with their favorite existing solutions to consider a newcomer perceived as expensive and more-of-the-same. As a result, Scion missed projected sales for four years in a row, falling off steeply in 2022.

Scion with UVX Technology Insecticide from FMC - Mosquito Campaign Launch Advertising and Materials

Our solution

Scion was too good to give up on. So, with direction and input from FMC, FVM was tasked with relaunching the product brand in a way that would command attention while positioning Scion as a must-have insecticide that served a specific purpose beyond “a little better than the rest.”

One area ripe with opportunity? Mosquito control. The market for mosquito control was still rapidly growing in the early 2020s, with as many as 80% of pest professionals citing requests to handle them. And because mosquitos don’t share breeding sites or behavior patterns with other bugs, they require specialized solutions… solutions like Scion.

Scion with UVX Technology Insecticide from FMC - Mosquito Campaign Launch Print Ad

So FVM delivered with a dare-you-to-try-it ad campaign focused on Scion for mosquito control. Scion’s mosquito-crushing power was so good it was backed by a 75-day assurance from FMC. What’s more, the assurance program had never been invoked even once. Scion was simply that good for mosquitos.

FVM proposed positioning Scion completely around the anti-mosquito promise and the company’s flawless track record. With FMC’s approval, we pushed it forward with:

Cheeky advertising featuring unused phones while touting the fact nobody had ever called FMC to redeem free Scion
A 75-day assurance badge across all Scion advertising that made the FMC promise against mosquito retreatments official, visible, and top-of-mind
Traditional, digital, and social executions that proudly trumpeted the power of Scion as a best-in-class solution for mosquito treatment
Support for a sample program to confidently put Scion in the hands of skeptical professionals so they could try it themselves

Scion with UVX Technology Insecticide from FMC - Mosquito Campaign Landing Page

Results

Every single Scion sample was redeemed. Scion’s updated ads received 854,000 impressions. And — oh yes — Scion sales more than quadrupled in 2023, smashing goals to revitalize the brand and reposition Scion as the solution for mosquitos and callbacks.

To this day, Scion continues to flourish. And the customers who got Scion samples are so satisfied, they’re reworking their mosquito control plans to include Scion… and sending in scores of success stories to FMC. Thanks to a smart campaign, FMC and their customers (and of course, mosquito-free homeowners) all win.

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