This article is brought to you by Cadence OTC.

When a c-store is entering a new market or begins carrying a brand-new product, one of the biggest challenges it can face is raising awareness among its customer base. How can a retailer sell a product if the consumer doesn’t know where to buy it?

Cadence OTC, manufacturer of the over-the-counter emergency contraceptive Morning After Pill, is helping to address this problem through geotargeted advertising. “We use geotargeted advertising in and around the radius of a convenience store that carries Morning After Pill, and then we invest in search and social media to highlight the store’s location online,” said Kate Voyten, SVP commercial operations at Cadence OTC.

Voyten noted that Cadence OTC advertises both through its distribution partnership with Lil’ Drug Store Products and through digital advertising on the most popular media platforms for women under 35—its target audience. This includes Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.

“We’ve had over 40 million impressions with our target audience online,” Voyten said. “Approximately 350,000 people visited our website to learn more about Morning After Pill, and around 180,000 searched for the nearest convenience store carrying our product.”

Cadence OTC is investing in the geotargeted advertising for its retailers that carry Morning After Pill in order to help the retailer drive traffic to their location, Voyten noted. The digital advertising helps educate consumers and direct consumers to c-stores by letting them know where they can buy the product at any time of day. In addition, the geotargeted advertising attracts a new, younger, and incremental buyer to the c-store—specifically women.

This past fall, Cadence OTC ran dedicated marketing activations across 25 college campuses, educating that the product is legal to buy and that it is now available in c-stores. “College campuses have proven to be particularly receptive to our marketing,” said Voyten. “And it’s translated into sales performance, with college towns being a top performer for the Morning After Pill.” Voyten noted that Cadence OTC will continue with the marketing tactic next spring.

“With emergency contraceptives like the Morning After Pill, convenience stores really have the opportunity to become the ‘go-to’ space for women to access this medication. And since women currently make up 43% of c-store customers, there’s a lot of room for growth in capturing that customer, especially among Gen Z women,” Voyten said.

For more on how c-stores are a natural fit for this new market, check out part one in this two-part series.