CLIENT: COLGATE
COMPANY: BASIC/DEPT®
Colgate Digital Whitening Companion
Colgate leads in oral care innovation, but their whitening pens were getting bad reviews because people were using them incorrectly. To showcase the value and effectiveness of their pens, Colgate partnered with us to create a digital companion app that educated users on proper usage, kept them on track with their goals, and ultimately helped Colgate’s products get the reviews they deserved.
Capturing valuable oral care data would position Colgate to build upon personalized care way beyond just whitening.
Challenge.
We focused on building an MVP that would give Colgate data grounded in real user behavior. And for our users, we needed to educate on proper product use, personalize their treatments, and provide timely expert help to recover from setbacks. The app had to support three whitening products, each with three distinct treatment schedules. I designed the logic framework to handle it all, including adherence tracking, mid-treatment support, and recovery paths, while ensuring results accurately reflected each user’s level of compliance.
Tracking success.
Success was to be defined by driving measurable product satisfaction and stronger brand preference for Colgate, while also boosting referrals and recommendations. We set clear targets: 30% of all unit sales resulting in an app download, at least 30% of users achieving full treatment compliance, 20% in-app open rates tied to cross-sell, and +25% retention at 90 days to ensure treatments stuck and loyalty followed.
After defining the core feature set, I partnered with user research to run testing, validating whether our features solved real pain points and ultimately boosted how users perceived Colgate’s products.
Results.
I drove the end-to-end strategy and product leadership behind the launch of the Colgate Bright app—building the treatment logic, expert coaching weaved throughout, adaptive recovery paths, smart tracking, and educational content strategy. The app was designed to improve adherence, build user confidence, support KPIs like satisfaction and referrals, and provide Colgate with valuable data for future product development.
The app launched successfully in the App Store, though it was later taken down as Colgate shifted priorities.