Raising Awareness with Unbranded Campaigns
You may have seen the posters on busses around town, “I survived disco. I can fight hepatitis C” with a gray-haired rocker holding a guitar.
What you won’t find on the poster unless you look extra hard is the name of the sponsor of the ad - Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The biotech company recently won FDA approval for the drug Incivek and instead of drumming up consumer demand directly for the drug, the company has implemented an unbranded consumer awareness campaign focused on hepatitis C. Consumers are directed to an unbranded website and free helpline where they can speak with nurses According to an article in the Boston Globe, pharmaceutical company giant Merck has also implemented an unbranded campaign aimed at educating people about the potentially deadly liver disease.
While a relatively new tactic with pharmaceutical companies, Schwartz has implemented successful unbranded awareness campaigns for many of our medical device clients. For LifeCell Corporation, Schwartz was charged with raising awareness among women about their options when speaking with surgeons about breast reconstruction post-mastectomy. The awareness campaign focused on relaying the importance of breast reconstruction options, while also highlighting the benefits of our client’s tissue regeneration technology in targeted media outreach. At all turns, the team focused on leveraging and positioning LifeCell’s unbranded, consumer awareness website with the media and the public as the go-to source to learn more about breast reconstruction options. Over a 15 month period, the team secured a steady stream of coverage in national women’s books, top tier business press and priority local media, reaching an estimated audience of more than 9.2 million with our key messages.
Schwartz also launched the world’s first educational web site devoted solely to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) which served as the educational landscape for an issue-awareness campaign, entitled, “Sleep Well, Be Healthy.” Schwartz drove visibility for the unbranded website as an educational resource to the more than 18 million potential sufferers, their families and friends, caregivers as well as sleep industry professionals. We encouraged the media to turn to an advisory council of expert physicians for insight into the condition and its health effects. Since launching the website, media coverage has resulted in more than 230 million impressions, including key messages around the prevalence of sleep apnea and the seriousness of its health consequences. Traffic to the unbranded website averaged nearly 7,500 visits and 15,000 page views per month.
It will be interesting to monitor the results of the hepatitis C campaign as well as to see if more pharma companies go the route of Vertex and Merck with unbranded campaigns.
Posted by Lauren Arnold on June 30, 2011 at 1:31 PM
