June 22, 2025
The digital shelf is a highly competitive and evolving space. Forget stale ad copy and dry product specifications. Your secret weapon is authentic stories.
True brand power comes from raw, real-life narratives – whispered between friends and shouted on social media.
It’s not luck but the prioritization of active listening, systematic testing, and agile adaptation that serves as the potent weapon enabling leading brands to optimize their ROI and achieve remarkable growth trajectories consistently. This powerful combination, fueled by a forward-thinking mindset rather than company size, is the true differentiator.
And how Galderma, a decades-old pharma powerhouse, is reinventing its own game, transforming its digital strategy, and using the authentic voice of its consumers to conquer the crowded digital shelf.
User-generated content (UGC) to explode SKU performance
Your customers are your best marketers. A staggering sixty-one percent of consumers don’t believe the claims written on your packaging. This highlights the critical need for authentic consumer voices to win trust.
1. Trust & growth go hand in hand
Products with more reviews directly correlate with higher sales and growth. For instance, Acnecide treatments doubled growth rates after increasing from less than twenty reviews to almost two hundred. This demonstrates the tangible impact of consumer feedback.
2. Cost-effective solutions for reviews
Generic incentives like ‘ten percent off their next purchase’ are often dismissed by consumers as boring and inadequate motivators for reviews. A better and more affordable way to get reviews is to work with platforms like Bazaarvoice ratings & reviews. These experts can get many real reviews because they use their existing networks and smart methods, which means you pay less per live review compared to doing it all yourself.
3. Leveraging direct engagement for reviews
Brands with loyal customers can effectively host their own review panels. Begin by sending products to sample and simply instructing customers to go to this link or search for this, and leave a product review. The participation rates can be as high as ninety percent because they’re super engaged with you and have signed up.
4. Navigating regulatory challenges with UGC
Even for regulated products, like Galderma’s medicated skincare, obtaining UGC is possible but requires careful navigation. Galderma successfully partnered with Bazaarvoice to unlock OTC (over-the-counter) reviews for Acnecide by meeting strict regulatory requirements from PAGB.
5. Repurposing for diverse marketing channels
Reviews and other forms of UGC can be effectively used in PPC ads, organic social channels, and digital product detail pages (PDP).
Physical & digital integration with omnichannel strategy
The consumer journey is increasingly omnichannel. Brands must optimize both physical and digital presence, even when traditional retailer data is scarce.
Emily Saunders, digital lead from Galderma, mentions ROPO (research online, purchase offline). At least half of the people shopping in Boots or Superdrug are on their phones looking at reviews while they’re looking at the products on the shelf.
1. Winning with PDP
Instead of sending consumers to generic retailer websites, direct them to a dedicated PDP where you control the narrative, curate reviews, and highlight offers. You can then directly address consumer concerns or barriers to purchase while they are standing at the shelf.
2. Strategic online advertising
Targeted PPC ads driving traffic directly to retailers like Boots and Amazon are essential components of the strategy. This is due to their unparalleled precision in reaching high-intent consumers, actively seeking products, and their ability to deliver immediate, measurable traffic to key conversion points.
3. UGC creator focus strategy
Forty-three percent of Gen Alpha have already made money from posting content online before even leaving school. This highlights the immense potential of everyday shoppers and their contribution to reach, conversion influence, and authenticity. Even individuals with a small number of followers are still influencing their friends, their families, and strangers. Leveraging the power of these UGC content creator voices is a core part of any successful social media content strategy.
Driving ROI: conversion & adoption tactics
Galderma’s operating principle is eighty percent today rather than never a hundred percent. This encourages rapid iteration and learning.
Experiment and act quickly on what you find. Use low-cost online market research polls (e.g., a “couple of hundred pounds” for a “couple of hundred people”) to pre-test digital content. When 80% of your audience responds the same way, that’s a signal worth acting on.
1. Optimize for conversion at every touchpoint
Make data-driven decisions by looking at conversion data to understand what resonates with consumers.
Streamline the purchase path that funnels consumers directly towards conversion, with clear calls to action, offers, and minimal distractions.
Implement landing pages after an order confirmation to offer additional items at a discounted price. This simple tactic can significantly top up your AOV(average order value) to a level that exceeds your LTV(lifetime value) to CAC (customer acquisition cost) ratio.
2. Build a strong consumer community with social listening
Galderma is relaunching CRM for Cetaphil, leveraging a skin analysis tool to capture really rich data on people’s skin status and needs for personalized communication. A separate CRM for healthcare professionals (HCPs) facilitates ongoing engagement and updates, filling a crucial communication gap.
Use consumer insights to take those messages back to our global team and influence the next products coming through or the next marketing messaging. Product teams can even completely switch up that product based on negative reviews and reintroduce it. A robust CRM system and user data fuel such innovation cycles, highlighting the prime example of an agile product feedback loop.
3. Strategic Competitive Positioning & Social Media Content Strategy:
Focus on why consumers should choose your brand (e.g., heritage, solution-oriented products, ingredients). Visual ad communication can effectively show your product as “bright and glorious” against “gray and drab” competitors. While pharma brands need careful regulatory approval, this competitive framing can drive significant sales.
Winners are always agile, authentic, and evolving
The deal with the digital shelf is clear. Keep trying new things, empower your consumers to shout about your brand, and make sure your story always rings true.
Galderma’s journey epitomizes the fusion of deep pharma expertise (“decades of pharma expertise and experience”) and dynamic digital agility. Actively expanding their e-commerce footprint and redefining brand perception across digital platforms, they prioritize direct communication with healthcare professionals and embrace digital-savvy shoppers, embodying true adaptability.
Don’t miss out on these game-changing insights. Watch our full webinar today to discover how to apply these strategies effectively within your organization!
