Green Cross Health was the pharmacy retail support group behind Life Pharmacy and Unichem - two of New Zealand's most recognised pharmacy brands, with a combined network spanning over 300 stores nationwide. The in-house studio I built and led was responsible for delivering the full creative output across both brands, from monthly retail catalogues reaching close to a million homes, to prestige partner campaigns for brands including Estée Lauder, Dior and Lancôme.
The Living Rewards loyalty programme required a rebrand that could work across two distinct retail audiences - the health-focused Unichem customer and the beauty-led Life Pharmacy shopper. The brief was originally given to an external agency who failed to capture what the programme needed to be.
We brought it in-house. The concept I led with the team was built around a living tree - created from iconic New Zealand kiwi birds, native foliage and medical brand elements including the pharmacy cross. Each element of the tree was designed to be extracted and used independently across POS, digital screens, eDMs and direct mail, creating a flexible visual system that connected every customer touchpoint back to the loyalty programme.
Over one million loyalty cards were printed and distributed across New Zealand. All supporting collateral, posters, mailers, website and app assets were kept predominantly white to ensure the tree remained the visual hero.
Life Pharmacy maintained ongoing partnerships with prestige beauty brands, using the loyalty database to target high-value customers with gift-with-purchase promotions and exclusive direct mail pieces. Each campaign required its own creative treatment - referencing the partner brand while remaining firmly within the Life Pharmacy identity. This was the first one in the new look and feel I created.
Before the network consolidated, four brands were in play - Life Pharmacy, Unichem, Radius and Amcal - each with their own dated look and feel. A monthly catalogue reaching close to a million customers was split and flipped to serve the two distinct categories of health and beauty, with a new cover theme and hero spread required every single month. This was high-volume retail publishing at pace, delivered consistently by the in-house studio.
In order to ramp up excitement for the gift-with-purchase market, a solid and strong base of Life Pharmacy customers who would wait for these, we started sending out direct mailers with sneak previews and incentives like discounts. I created this new adaptation using the gifts pattern in the background.
This is an example of how the previous direct marketing that was produced before Life Pharmacy and Living Rewards were both rebranded. We used the pattern from the partners gift to link the gift when customers came in store after receiving the promo in the mail.
This campaign was centred around a trip to New York, all that was required was swiping your loyalty card in store whether new or existing members. A host of prestige partners came on board to make this successful. A booklet was produced as a direct mail piece and in-store POS was created to support the look and feel I created that really took reference to the prize.