Nicotine Pouch Marketing Strategies in the USA: an Analysis of Zyn, On! and Velo.
Friday, July 15, 2022
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
Duan Z, Henriksen L, Vallone D,
et al.
Nicotine Pouch Marketing
Strategies in the USA: an Analysis of Zyn, On! and Velo.
Tobacco Control Published Online First: 11 July
2022. doi: 10.1136/tc-2022-057360
Introduction. Nicotine
pouches are gaining popularity, yet their marketing is understudied.
Methods. Using
Numerator advertising data from January 2019 to September 2021 regarding three
popular brands of nicotine pouch in the USA—Zyn (by Swedish Match, introduced
in the USA in July 2016), On! (Altria, August 2016) and Velo (RJ Reynolds, July
2019)—we examined (1) general advertising characteristics (eg, media type,
year); (2) ad content (ie, headlines and imagery themes); (3) prominent media
channels (ie, specific websites, magazines, etc); and (4) ad expenditures.
Results. There
were 286 unique ads (Zyn: 44.4%; On!: 2.8%; Velo: 52.8%), 119 143 occurrences
(Zyn: 3.5%; On!: 0.5%; Velo: 96.0%) and $24 774 650 total expenditures (Zyn:
4.7%; On!: 0.6%; Velo: 94.7%). The greatest proportion of ad occurrences and
expenditures were accounted for by radio (75.9% and 28.2%, respectively) and
television (16.2% and 56.5%), followed by mobile (0.5% and 7.2%) and online
display (6.7% and 3.6%). Across ad occurrences and expenditures, prominent
headline themes included ‘freedom’ (26.0% and 17.1%, respectively), ‘brand’
(9.6% and 18.6%) and ‘flavour’ (16.4% and 7.6%); images mainly featured the
product alone (61.4% and 56.1%), text (16.2% and 24.6%) or men (8.7% and 8.6%);
and prominent channel themes were entertainment (34.7% and 37.3%), news/weather
(14.3% and 21.7%), business/finance (12.9% and 9.0%) and sports (9.5% and
1.0%). Zyn and On! prioritised online display and print; Velo prioritised radio
and television. Zyn’s and Velo’s headlines focused on ‘freedom’, with Zyn also
emphasising ‘brand’ and Velo ‘innovation’; On!’s headlines emphasised
‘flavour’.
Conclusions. Regulatory
efforts must be informed by surveillance of nicotine pouch marketing and
impacts on consumer subgroups (eg, young people).
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