LOS ANGELES — Dr. Fresh Inc. has found success using social media channels to promote its Binaca breath freshener brand.

The oral care and personal health products company said this week that its strategy to focus its marketing resources on social media — including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube — to reach the key 18- to 25-year-old demographic is paying off as it continues its relaunch of the iconic breath spray, which it acquired out of bankruptcy in late 2008.

"The results were rapid and astonishing," Puneet Nanda, president of Dr. Fresh, said in a statement. "One of our recent promotions involved an offer of free product to consumers who reposted and ‘liked’ us on Facebook or became followers on Twitter. In less than 48 hours, we had an unprecedented 14,000 new ‘likes’ on Facebook."

A little over a year ago, Dr. Fresh kicked off a comprehensive print and television advertising campaign to promote the relaunch of the Binaca brand, an effort that included redesigned packaging to give the product a new look to enhance its appeal to younger consumers.

Dr. Fresh explained that Binaca, which had been struggling at retail for years and been eclipsed by such products as Listerine PocketPaks Breath Strips, is familiar primarily to baby boomers, and the company concluded that making Binaca more relevant to the "iPod generation" would be a linchpin of the brand’s reintroduction.

However, despite aggressive spending, the print and TV campaign reached only a small segment of young users, according to Dr. Fresh. The company said that led it to turn to nontraditional media and launch a number of initiatives with fun, entertaining and edgy content that offered viral, fast "friend-raising" potential.

And so far, that approach has clicked. "Our young consumers have become the Binaca brand’s most effective ambassadors," Nanda noted.

Dr. Fresh added that it also has found that the Generation Y target audience is a significant resource in terms of testing new product flavors, packaging and configurations. The company said makes it a priority to attend Generation Y-related events and venues, describing them as "a very fertile ground" for product research and development.