Executive, who took office in January, also spoke about strategies and actions of the company’s brands
With a solid career in advertising agencies – having even founded digital Today -, Adilson Batista took over the position of CMO at FreeBrands, owner of the iconic FreeC, leader in the sanitary odor blocker category in the country in January of this year. The publicist’s history with the brand goes back a long way – he was the one who launched the product in 2015 on the market.
Positioned as the house of brands in the HPPC segment (Personal Hygiene, Perfumery and Cosmetics), the company also has the Free Wipes brands, antiseptic wet wipes; Free Bite, which relieves itching caused by insect bites; Kissu, oral spray against bad breath; and Beta lip moisturizer.
In this interview, Batista talks about the challenges of being on the other side of the counter and the company’s expansion strategies. FreeC has a 93% market share in the bathroom freshener category. It is practically synonymous with category, points out Batista, who also talks about the brand’s rebranding process.
Since when do you work with FreeC?
I started serving the brand with my agency, Today, in 2015, right at the beginning of product creation. The founders of FreeC (Rafael Nasser, CEO and co-founder, and Renato Radomysler, commercial director and co-founder) went to work in a company belonging to the olfactory marketing family, which operated in the B2B market. And they created FreeC in April of that year for the B2C segment. After early product trials and initial sales, they approached me in November 2015 to develop a strategy for bringing the product to market. And I started the process practically from scratch. They already had the name created, packaging, for example, but they had no communication strategy. I had a personal pain, because I worked with many clients, large companies, multinationals, in which many things were already predetermined, the agency did not have so much freedom to interfere in aspects where the agency does not have much space. And I saw this opportunity with FreeC, I embraced it and started to serve the brand personally.
And what was the adopted strategy?
Over time, we created FreeC’s face for the market. At that time, social networks were gaining prominence and we saw an opportunity to use them as the main communication channel, because we didn’t have enough money to do big actions at that time, it was a startup. We started to do actions focused on the digital environment, using the online a lot to listen to the public, to find out their opinion, what they thought of the product, and they were very fun conversations because initially people did not know FreeC.
And how did you end your agency and migrate to FreeBrands?
I spent many years in agencies and what I realized is that my relationships with my clients went beyond the communication aspect. I ended up getting involved with the operation, the customer’s technology. I began to see myself in this role on the other side of the media. the first time I work in an advertiser. The opportunity arose and I ended up making this move. I ended Today in 2021 and organized the agency so that it would become small companies, such as a production company and a technology startup. I closed the main operation and continued with the companies, which still exist today, and I act as a mentor. And, after that, it made sense to take over as CMO of FreeBrands in January of this year, after a period acting as a consultant for the brand.
And what are your challenges as a CMO?
Many, but I think the main one is CMO. I’m learning to be a CMO. In my way of understanding, being a CMO these days is being able to gather deep knowledge of the public, of communication disciplines and a lot of knowledge of technology. Technology has entered the marketing landscape with a lot of force, and I am a technology geek.
What brands are part of FreeBrands today?
FreeC, which is the first brand, is eight years old and already has eight formats. And we have a roadmap of launching more products under the FreeC brand. In addition, we have FreeBite, which is a younger brand, a year and a half old. It is a gel to apply when the person is bitten by a mosquito. It relieves itchiness and redness. Beta still a younger brand, went to the point of sale in December last year. It is a lip moisturizer. Demand was very high, a sales success. By May or June, we should be ready to do an official product launch. And there is also Free Wipes, which appeared in the pre-pandemic. In 2019, the product was developed and soon after came the pandemic. At that moment, sales exploded and the product became a huge success at the POS as well. For FreeC we do media, Free Bite too, and Free Wipes has communication aimed at the POS. And there is a fifth brand, Kissu, an oral spray, in which we took a step back. It went to the point of sale and it didn’t perform the way we imagined, but we learned a lot from the consumer. So, the product went back to the drawing board, was reformulated and is now in the testing and approval phase. It has a very strong following with the younger audience, for example.
In which media does the company advertise?
We are currently running a FreeC campaign on Globo regional, in the macro-region of Campinas and Ribeiro Preto, on EPTV. In these regions, in addition to TV, we also have radio, outdoor, digital and point-of-sale media.
Why do a regional campaign?
We learned that FreeC is very well known in the capitals of Brazil, it is present in all 27 states, but we realized that there are many opportunities to enter other cities in the country. We are in a strategy of interiorization, of entering big cities, but that are not capitals. And it made perfect sense to start with the state of So Paulo. Our goal is to pick up big cities in the states.
What is the motto of the action?
We created a campaign with a country music duo and played a game with the number two’s voice. FreeC becomes the protagonist in several moments. The motto is: Shameless number two.
Do you work with outside agencies?
We work with in-house. We have our own team led by marketing, but we use external agencies when necessary. For this communication project in Campinas and Ribeiro Preto, for example, we worked with a local agency, which knows the region and the best media channels. We also have a performance agency, Buzzer Digital.
Why is it only now that the company has decided to have the position of CMO?
We discussed a lot internally that marketing has a very strategic role in this FreeBrands business. Marketing has the role of presenting the product, creating demand, because none of our brands of essential products. We need to remind people that they exist. As we have a goal of tripling the operation in three years, it made sense to create this function. Marketing received a 30% budget increase this year. an expansion strategy. We have 24 thousand points of sale in the country, but some of them do not have the presence of all our brands. The aim to optimize.
The flagship of FreeBrands is FreeC, correct?
Yes, definitely. FreeC has a 93% market share in the bathroom freshener category. It is practically synonymous with category. We are now carrying out a commemorative rebranding of the eight-year-old brand, with a refresh of the logo, approach and tone of voice. We hired Dragon Rouge to help us with this process.
What is the brand’s sales volume?
In 2022, five million units were sold. The goal is to reach 6.5 million this year.
Was there sales growth in 2022?
Overall, the increase was 20%.
And what is the expectation for this year?
At the very least, repeat the 20% growth, ideally 30% in order to have the viability of growing three times in three years. There’s still plenty of room to grow. Compared to the American sanitary odor blocker market, we have less than 15% of their total, respecting proportionalities. Obviously, this goes through a process of educating the Brazilian consumer habit. And since we are the handlers of the category, we end up with these nudes, on the other hand, we have the largest market share.
How do Brazilians see the brand?
We did a recent survey because of the rebranding of the brand, where we qualitatively interviewed almost 400 people. They say they love the humorous side of the brand and how FreeC has created a tone of voice that combats the awkwardness of talking about the number two. They find communication fun. We received many requests to create new products, such as new fragrances and one of the champion requests for the launch of a FreeC pet line, which we have been studying for some time.
