Case 02 — Vaping Done Right

Consolidating brand architecture with AI-optimised activation.

Four in ten smokers wrongly believe vaping is at least as harmful as smoking3 — and that mistrust is one of the category's biggest barriers.

Vuse had real credentials across every driver of trust — harm reduction, quality, sustainability, DEI, underage-access prevention — and on the science, the public-health consensus was firmly on its side.2 4 The problem was that the consensus wasn't reaching consumers: various trust campaigns were competing with each other, and with every product launch, for the same finite airtime. So how do you make all of that substance finally land — without running campaign after campaign, and without multiplying the budget?

RoleGlobal Category Lead — Health & ESG

ClientBAT · Vuse

ScopeGlobal

Year2024

ProgrammeSHIFT · FIELD

ProofDirectional · sources cited

01The problem

Various trust campaigns, all fighting each other for airtime.

Trust was a huge challenge for the whole category: a large and rising share of smokers wrongly believe vaping is at least as harmful as smoking2, and that mistrust is a documented barrier to switching3. Vuse actually had genuine credentials and a real story to tell across key drivers of trust — Tobacco Harm Reduction, Quality, Sustainability, DEI and Underage Access Prevention. But each was being deployed as its own trust campaign, competing for the same resources and airtime as the brand's new-product launches. It's really difficult to land any message with impact when you're trying to deliver such a variety of disparate messages and campaigns at once.

02The idea

So we collated them under one platform — Vaping Done Right.

The recommendation was simple to state and hard to execute: stop running them as separate campaigns and collate all that disparate equity campaigning under one umbrella architecture. One platform every market could activate first — flexible and adaptable enough to flex by market, with the operational substance riding underneath. We built it to drive scale and reach behind a single omnichannel trust platform: Vaping Done Right.

03The AI role

AI helped us prioritise the right messages for each market.

Instead of pushing one-size-fits-all global messaging, AI helped us prioritise the trust messages most likely to land in each market — at a speed and cost conventional research couldn't touch. The AI didn't make the call; it did the heavy lifting behind it, using a mix of bespoke and off-the-shelf AI tools to test what would resonate where, then adapt the creative as required.

04The approach

Synthetic audiences set the priorities; we adapted the assets to match.

How? Two AI workstreams under the platform. First, synthetic consumer research — AI-modelled audiences built for each market — tested the brand's many candidate messages and surfaced each market's priority themes: some markets and consumers were driven by hard scientific research and facts, others by environmental and societal proof. Second, that priority drove production — one master idea, adapted into market-specific variants across every touchpoint and gated against the per-market baselines.

05The outcome

Now deployed globally across Vuse's markets.

In the markets where the platform ran, brand-trust measures moved in the right direction — directionally, perceptions of trust, quality and sustainability all improved where before-and-after comparison was possible. The consumer never saw the AI underneath; they just saw a brand that, market by market, finally felt like it was talking to them. Vuse is BAT's leading global vapour brand1, and Vaping Done Right now runs across its markets worldwide.

Sources & substantiation

Vuse is BAT's leading global vapour brand (~40% value share in top markets). BAT 2024 results. bat.com
Nicotine vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking, yet misperceptions of relative harm among smokers have grown over the past decade. Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID), Nicotine vaping in England: 2022 evidence update. gov.uk
Around four in ten people who smoke wrongly believe vaping is as harmful as, or more harmful than, smoking — a misperception that can deter them from switching. Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). ash.org.uk
Independent evidence review concluding that e-cigarettes are substantially less harmful than smoking and have a role in harm reduction. Royal College of Physicians (2024), E-cigarettes and harm reduction. rcp.ac.uk

Fuller commercial detail — market-by-market deployment and the brand-tracker movements — is available on request. Request the full case study →

Case study describes work led by Andy Parton in a senior role at British American Tobacco plc. All brands and trademarks are the property of their respective owners; Parallax Advisory is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by them. Figures cited are drawn from the public sources noted; where results are commercially confidential they are shown directionally. Outcomes reflect a specific engagement and are not a guarantee of future results.

FAQ

What is a brand-architecture umbrella platform?

An umbrella platform consolidates multiple operational programmes — quality, sustainability, trust, inclusion — into one consumer-facing brand story. Instead of each programme running as its own campaign and competing for the same airtime, markets activate a single architecture, with the substance riding underneath. The point is to make complex operational work legible to consumers without diluting the credibility behind it.

Why use AI to prioritise messages, rather than just to produce creative?

Production turns one message into many assets; prioritisation decides which message deserves the investment in the first place. AI can model how different audiences are likely to respond and surface the messages most likely to land in each market before budget is committed — so spend follows evidence rather than instinct, and the right message reaches the right market across every touchpoint.

How does synthetic consumer research work in regulated categories?

Synthetic audiences are models built on existing first-party and published research; they generate hypotheses quickly and cheaply. In regulated categories they sit ahead of — not instead of — real human validation: synthetic research narrows the field, and real consumers confirm before anything goes to market. Done well, regulatory and claims-risk gates are designed into the workflow rather than bolted on.

Can a brand-architecture move work when the underlying credentials are already strong?

Often that's exactly when it works best. The architecture doesn't create credibility — it makes existing credibility activatable. Strong operational substance with a weak consumer-facing structure leaves credit on the table; an umbrella closes the gap between what a brand does and what consumers actually perceive.

How do you stop a brand's separate campaigns competing with each other?

By giving them one home. When quality, sustainability and trust each run as separate campaigns they fragment attention and budget; an umbrella architecture lets a market activate them as one connected story, so they compound rather than cannibalise. The discipline is choosing what to lead with — which is where message prioritisation earns its place.

How do you measure whether a brand-architecture platform is working?

Through brand-equity and perception tracking — measuring trust, quality and related drivers before and after activation in the markets where it runs, alongside how many markets choose to deploy it. Movements are read directionally and in context; a platform that more markets adopt, and that shifts perception where it's measured, is doing its job.

Can I see the detail behind the headline figures?

Some additional detail can be shared under NDA — please request the full case study or start a conversation below.

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