Biogency’s healthy brand protection strategy with Laava

Consumers who were loyal to the Biogency brand had been unwittingly buying copycat products: the bottles looked to be Biogency branded, but there was no way for consumers to distinguish the real items from fakes, or to know the ingredients were effective or even safe.

The Biogency team approached Laava in 2020 for a brand protection solution that offered stronger security than the QR codes used by their competitors and emulators.

Results: “With Laava’s brand protection system in place, we now have a very straightforward way for us to identify the counterfeit, react quickly, and respond to protect our valued customers,” said Jimmy Tang, Sales and Marketing Director, Biogency. Laava is about to enter the third year of its commercial partnership with Biogency, with Laava Smart Fingerprints® having featured on over 2.7 million Biogency individual products to-date.

Consumer collaboration, fighting the fakes

The Laava Biogency partnership began as a way to help protect this premium brand and patented product formulations from copycats and fakes. It evolved into an integrated consumer engagement strategy supported by influencers on social media platforms in Biogency’s target markets. And when a counterfeit inevitably did appear? Thanks to Laava’s technology, Biogency was able to shut down the counterfeit attempts and quickly warn consumers that their product may not be authentic.

Millions of Biogency products featuring Laava Smart Fingerprints are in markets such as mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore and Malaysia. Biogency is also sold online from its own website, and via Amazon.

As a result of Biogency’s marketing strategy and ongoing education campaign conducted on social media platforms, their customers began posting about their scan experience. The public WeChat campaign resulted in 40,000 views; the audiences also created thousands of likes, comments and shares across Instagram, Little Red Book and TikTok.

Biogency engaged influencers such as Jessie Li and Stephanie Hunt to talk to their audiences about the products’ benefits, as well as how to verify their authenticity by scanning the Laava Smart Fingerprint on the bottle.

“Our customers know now that genuine Biogency products have the Laava authentication codes. Compared with traditional QR codes, which we know can lead to fake landing pages, the uniqueness of the Laava Smart Fingerprint equates to brand protection. And our customers love the Laava scanning experience,” Jimmy Tang, Sales and Marketing Director, Biogency.

A secure, engaging scannable experience

Biogency customers can choose to scan their products from either Laava.id or Laava’s WeChat mini-program. Laava also offers customers the ability to scan from the brand’s own website. For now, Biogency prefer the independent and secure feeling that comes from being connected with the Laava authentication brand.

Gavin Ger, Laava CEO and Co-Founder explained, “For absolute confidence, we deployed a multi-layered approach incorporating a suite of tools:

• secure, scannable Laava Smart Fingerprints for every item of production
• the ability to match the batch number on the packaging with the batch number on the results screen
• the iconic Australian Made logo on the labels and results screens.”

The ‘wow’ factor

“Every time we demonstrate our Laava function to a new customer or distributor, it’s a ‘WOW’ moment. The uniqueness adds brand value and is a strong marketing sales point for us. Ultimately, Biogency stands out from other brands that use traditional QR codes,” Mr Tang said.

Laava’s data analytics tools help shut down the counterfeiters

Biogency knew that counterfeit activity was damaging their brand and putting their customers at risk. What they didn’t know was the origin and location of the copycat products. Using Laava’s intelligent rules engine, Biogency was able to quickly identify and shutdown the copied products.

Biogency also knew they had a grey market problem but had no way of identifying the source. Laava’s data analytics tools and geolocation rules helped Biogency to identify the grey market activity. Knowledge of the source meant Biogency could quickly take action. In turn, the evidence empowered Biogency to protect its distributors and their network, ensuring the value of the Biogency products was maintained.

Brand protection: in action

The presence of a secure brand protection strategy acted as a strong deterrent to counterfeiters. However, when a counterfeit product did inevitably appear, Biogency was able to move quickly to protect its customers – and its brand.

“A customer who had seen the Biogency posts about our work with Laava noticed that two of their bottles had the same Fingerprint and the same serial number. The customer got in touch,” Mr Tang said.

Laava immediately shut down that Fingerprint so that anyone scanning it would be notified that the product was not genuine. That single Fingerprint had been reproduced and used multiple times on more than one product.

“Our actions prevented consumers from using those fakes, which could have been dangerous. Who knows what was in the tablets in the counterfeit bottles?”

Moving at pace to get results fast

Before Biogency contacted Laava, they had read case studies showcasing the Laava technology in real world applications. They went on to conduct their own tests from their Sydney headquarters, printing sample Smart Fingerprints from the Laava website to test various size and layout configurations.

“Biogency approached our first meeting knowing exactly what they wanted and confident in Laava’s ability to deliver. From the time of the first meeting to the first sample Fingerprints on Biogency’s new bottle labels was only a few short weeks,” said Gavin Ger, Laava CEO and Co-Founder.

To learn more visit the Laava website or contact the Customer Support team to start a trial.

Gavin Ger is CEO and Co-Founder of Laava. is a commercial specialist with a career spanning 25+ years in global management consulting, technology and entrepreneurship. He is passionate about innovation, technology and the power of collaboration. His career includes 12 years with Andersen Consulting (later Accenture) in Sydney and London, developing expertise in major-scale technology and strategy driven change.

Laava helps brands tell trusted stories and turn their products into connected products, with patented Laava Smart Fingerprint® technology – the world’s first secure and globally scalable alternative to QR codes.