"Never stop thinking like your audience"

Faisal Ahmed is Head of digital at Life Healthcare Communications and a co-founder of Digitally Sick, a podcast focussed on the use of digital in the pharmaceutical industry. We spoke to him about his hopes for the industry this year, and the potential in pharma for social networking and bookmarking site, Pinterest.
 

What do you think is going to be the major game-changer in pharmaceutical marketing in 2012? 

What are you personally most looking forward to in the industry in 2012?  

There's a lot of buzz about the increasing popularity of Pinterest as a social media platform. How do you imagine such a visual tool can fit into pharmaceutical marketing, if at all?  

Announcing the 2011 PM Society Digital Pioneers

The PM Society Digital Pioneer Award, now in its third year, recognises the increasing importance of digital and those that pushed the digital boundaries within their pharma environment.

This year there were four nominees for the title: 

Simon Clough, Managing Director of Daiichi Sankyo UK for his vision to revolutionise the company digitally from the inside out, with impressive results.  

James Grant, Senior Brand Manager of GSK who's championed digital with innovative and successful e-campaigns across a number of brands. 

John Pugh, Director of Digital Communications, at Boehringer Ingelheim, a champion of social media who's working on a ground-breaking Facebook game.

Dr Simon Clough, Managing Director of Daiichi Sankyo UK

John Pugh, Director of Digital Communications, at Boehringer Ingelheim

Your PM Society is ready for 2012…

New Interest Groups fully in tune with the healthcare environment and today's marketers

"The campaign is very hard-hitting and provokes a response"

The 2011 Advertising Awards finalist list features five names making their Awards debut: CAN Advertising, eBee Health, inventive Health Communications, Lime and OPEN Health. CAN Advertising has received its first nomination in the International Core Campaign (Craft) category for their work on Scalp Psoriasis for LEO Pharma. We spoke to Lisa Dodd and Clare Chamberlain about the creative execution and delivery of the global campaign.

CAN Advertising was founded two years ago by Lisa Dodd and Clare Chamberlain. Both have strong backgrounds in the pharmaceutical marketing industry – the pair met at Adventis, where Clare was a Strategic Planner and Lisa Client Services Director. The aim was to develop an agency that would be unique, "we wanted to set up something that would be very different in the advertising world," says Lisa.

The dream came true two years ago with the launch of CAN Advertising "We opened our doors on March 1st two years ago, and we got our first major account with LEO Pharma that May. It was hard work, but we've had a good couple of years!"

CAN Advertising is nominated in the International Core Campaign category for the Scalp Psoriasis/Xamiol campaign for LEO Pharma.

The creative motivation for the campaign comes from the feedback of patients. "We really learned from the patient perspective what it's like to have scalp psoriasis, how they feel about this disease and its symptoms".

The images that were shocking but showed that we really understood the condition

Scalp psoriasis symptoms include intense itching and a flaking scalp, and one of the key findings of the market research CAN Advertising conducted was the regional variation in the patient's perception of the condition. Respondents in the US tended to be more embarrassed by the condition and talked about problems caused by attempts to ignore the symptoms. "You don't want to show any weakness in your job, so you can't be scratching your head during a meeting but you might lose concentration in the meeting because you're obsessed by the desire to scratch". While embarrassment was still an issue in Paris, there was also a more defiant attitude. "It was more, 'well, people have a problem if they can't deal with me having a bit of scalp psoriasis'," Clare reports.

The standout imagery in the CAN Advertising nomination shows an anguished woman with dozens of hands clawing at her scalp, something that really conveys some of the discomfort of the condition. CAN retained strong creative control throughout to ensure the campaign fully communicated the experience of patients. "We went back to the very beginning, making sure that we sourced the right models, and getting their expressions right, so that the images that were shocking but showed that we really understood the condition. Because of that, the campaign is very hard-hitting and provokes a response".

CAN Advertising's involvement wasn't limited to the creative side. They also led the campaign delivery, from developing marketing tools to offering workshops for LEO Pharma's product managers. Clare explains, "we contacted every product manager involved in launching and marketing Xamiol, and involved them through questionnaires. We included as many people as we could. We had the key markets like France, the UK, and the US, and also involved those with less experience, like the smaller markets out in Southeast Asia, who are more likely to take up every piece of information and help they can.

It is very, very tricky to meet everybody's expectations, that's why we tried to manage that whole process

"We presented the campaign, and all the materials, through a day of workshops to the entire LEO dermatology marketing team, in Copenhagen a year ago. We presented and ran the sessions for them for over 100 marketing managers and product managers."

"It is very, very tricky to meet everybody's expectations," Lisa says, "and that's why we tried to manage that whole process, to ensure that people did receive the imagery well, that they were actually going to use it and it wasn't going to be something they were stuck with rather than something they wanted to use. We certainly got a really positive reaction!" The dermatology marketing team responded to CAN Advertising's work in the best possible way, with a spontaneous round of applause.

CAN Advertising are understandably thrilled about their Advertising Award nomination. "We're really proud and we're really, really excited! It finishes up a great campaign for us, because we love it - we love the imagery, and we're really proud to be nominated."

With thanks to Lisa Dodd and Clare Chamberlain of CAN Advertising. Like CAN Advertising on Facebook for more information.
 
 

"It’s about making impact and using creativity to capture people’s attention"

The 2011 Advertising Awards finalist list features five names making their Awards debut: CAN Advertising, eBee Health, inventive Health Communications, Lime and OPEN Health. Lime has received its first nomination in the Detailing Aid (Craft) category for their work on Zineryt for Astellas. We spoke to owner Alex Fone about the agency, the industry and Lime's nominated campaign. 

Launched by Alex and Kelly Underwood-Fone in October 2008, Lime now employs seven full-time staff working with seven client companies across a number of brands. The agency delivers work on a wide range of projects, from website design and iPad apps to video-based projects. Lime’s structure, Alex claims, allows them to remain flexible and responsive in the current fluctuating market, and with a broad skillset they appear to be enjoying the shakeup that digital's giving the pharmaceutical marketing world. 

You need to make sure you know why you're using a form of communication - otherwise it’s just a big waste of money

"We’re doing more and more projects that deliver digitally and I predict we won’t be doing anything with paper in a few years’ time. One interesting  thing will be what happens to the role of the medical representative in the coming years, how that will change or if it will even disappear entirely. There are now a number of innovative, more cost-effective, ways to with connect with doctors without needing to have somebody knocking on doors." 

But as doctors increasingly adopt digital technologies like the iPad, Alex is acutely aware of the key role of human interaction. "A lot of doctors like to have a bit of cut’n’thrust and debate with reps - a lot of doctors admit that’s still one of their top sources of new information and they like to talk to another human being. I don’t think that should be underestimated."

The key to making digital work for the audience will be in making information easy to find and to really understand why you’re using chosen communication channels. "You need to make sure you understand what relevance and value it’s going to have in order to make it useful. Otherwise it’s just a big waste of money."

It’s about making impact and using creativity to try and capture people’s attention

Lime’s finalist in the 2011 PM Society Advertising Awards, the Zineryt detail aid for Astellas, is their first Awards finalist and pitches Zineryt as an acne-defeating hero.  So how did Lime arrive at their solution to the creative brief?

Lime knew that Zineryt’s target market is promotionally responsive, "if you go out there and talk to doctors and hit them with the relevant message frequently enough then they respond to that." However, in a market where the differences between products mean little to doctors or patients, the message may not have been hitting its target: Zineryt was "a little bit anonymous". Memorable branding was vital. 

"It’s not a product you can differentiate in a classic marketing sense. It’s more about making impact and using creativity to try and capture people’s attention and imagination and leave them with a positive attitude." To do this, Lime chose to step away from the traditional imagery. In a market saturated with teenagers they made the condition, not the patient, the star. "It was about focussing the doctor’s mind on acne. Whenever they see acne or think acne, the answer is Zineryt". 

Feedback for the campaign, which launched in June 2011, has been positive, according to Alex. "One of the really pleasing things in the research was that there wasn’t a single parameter that didn’t score 50% or more positive response from GPs in terms of the campaign," and there’s scope for more, with Lime looking at ways in which the campaign can be further developed. 

It’s nice to get that creative recognition and for the client to know that their trust in what we’re doing is paying off

The Advertising Awards nomination means a lot to Lime, "it’s our first campaign that’s been worthy or judged worthy by our creative peers in terms being judged as a finalist in the Awards, and as an agency it’s an incredibly positive thing. It’s nice to get that creative recognition and for the client to know that their trust in what we’re doing as an agency is paying off."
 

With thanks to Alex Fone and Lime. Follow Lime on Twitter.