We prepared a collection of the best marketing campaigns from our clients, our clinical trial recruitment, and various OTC consumer healthcare brands. Find out more about some of the most successful positioning strategies and marketing activities by reading the article or viewing the presentation below.
Many of PharmaLinea’s products have been launched by companies that are experts in B2C marketing. We collected some of their insights on their successful go-to-market strategies, promotional tools, advertising campaigns, positioning tactics, and lessons learned.
In 2020, our client from a country in the European Union launched >Your< Immuniq Syrup for children and >Your< Immuniq Capsules for adults. After launch, they struggled to achieve good sell-out results in a small but crowded market with high consumer trust in doctors and pharmacists.
To achieve better results, our client decided to launch a marketing campaign focused on medical detailing with supporting activities. They focused on preparing interactive presentations for small groups of doctors (15-25 people), where they could answer the doctors’ questions and offer free samples so the doctors could test the efficacy of the products themselves. They organized “Round table” events where doctors, our client was working with already, would get a chance to mingle with other specialists and exchange experience. Our client also provided new branded materials, such as prescription books, specialized brochures, colouring cubes for children, box with spatulas for throat examination, and so forth, for doctors and pharmacists.
As print is still a powerful channel in their market, our client invested in various types of promotional activities to reach a wide audience – they participated in various brochures in pharmacies and newsletters that reach up to 150.000 people, specialized medical magazines written by and intended for doctors, weekly newspapers for elderly people, and lifestyle magazines (those that agreed to provide statistics). The client marked newspapers as one of their most advantageous channels for gaining popularity of their other brand, that’s why they decided to also use it for food supplements as well. It was a good decision as they regularly get calls from elderly people asking for clarifications and they wouldn’t have had any other way to reach them.
During the campaign, the client also started working with influencers (very cautiously) and established a long-term partnership with a fitness and wellness specialist who has built a community through online workout programs for women.
Our client attributes part of their success to constantly testing varied and innovative communication channels to reach their target audience with a larger effect. For example, as a part of the campaign they sponsored a children’s football team and collaborated with a ready-to-go healthy meal company. Successful campaigns are not only about adding new activities and investments, but also critically evaluating each activity and eliminating or adapting those with a negative ROI. The client has also had experience with TV advertising but after calculating the cost-benefit analysis, they decided it is not sustainable and does not result in a high enough increase in interest/sales to justify the cost for a national campaign in primetime television. However, they still employ it from time to time, using smaller TV channels.
After the 2022 campaign, the number of ordered units increased by 255%. In a market with less than 10 million people, our client sold over 15 thousand units per million of people since launching the products.
Our client from a country in Eastern Europe launched >Your< Vision Sachets* for adults and >Your< Vision Syrup for children in 2021. The local eye supplement market was very niche and underdeveloped, with a lot of education needed if larger volumes are to be achieved one day.
*>Your< Vision Sachets are an older product form, now available in stick packs.
Our client decided to launch an educational campaign, focusing on medical professionals on one hand and on educating consumers through digital and OOH activities on the other. They implemented intensive training for their field force to help them understand the scientific background and mechanisms of action as well as possible. They included:
Our client also sent out seasonal newsletter to medical representatives, where they outlined top 3 focus points for each products for the specific season.
Educating consumers was the next important step of the campaign. Our client utilized social media posts, they partnered with a niche TV channel to produce a series of short educational videos, and they launched eye health checking campaigns in schools.
To increase brand awareness and thought leadership, our client employed several other promotional strategies. They partnered with specific websites for placement of banners, wallpapers, and PR articles. They connected with eyewear retailers across the country, launched national radio campaigns several times per year, and utilized Google Ads.
Currently our client noticed a tendency for people to drive to and from the seaside late at night to avoid traffic. Their highways are very poorly lit and lights from oncoming cars feel too strong, almost blinding. After a long drive, one can feel as if they have driven all night, their eyes hurt and so on. Our client will utilize this in our fall campaign.
The number of ordered units almost doubled only a year after the initial launch – it exceeded 15.000 units. After the campaign in 2022, the orders increased by additional 39%. In a very niche and small market our client sold over 7,7 thousand units per million of people since launching the products.
At the beginning of 2023, PharmaLinea successfully utilized influencer marketing for the recruitment of clinical trial participants. With the campaign, we reached nearly 1 million people, spread awareness of the importance of iron and the prevalence of deficiency, recruited candidates to come for hemoglobin testing, and came in personal contact with people who need supplements.
PharmaLinea was struggling to recruit enough subjects for a clinical trial on our iron supplements due to a specific set of requirements:
We started an influencer campaign which included around 100 influencers. In the end 10 were responsible for 90% of the results. The number of influencers was so high as there was a lot of testing involved to pinpoint the right type of influencer with the right type of following. Throughout the campaign, the parameters were finetuned.
The chosen influencers had a follower base of health-conscious, active people, interested in nutrition, sport, science, and medicine. The followers were mostly women, 16-50 years old.
To our surprise, we have a good presence of doctor influencers with high credibility, high reach, and high influence on their audience. They were able to credibly and in a scientifically sound way communicate on the topic of iron deficiency and clinical trials and very successfully mobilize hundreds to apply and come to our screening.
While we struggled for more than 6 months to get 300 applications with traditional means, we managed to obtain 1200 applications in 3 months with influencers (90% of which in only 1 month after optimization). Notably, 30% of the screened subjects were iron-deficient and thus potential customers for supplementation.
With an agency running the campaign, the hands-on time investment for our team was minimal, as opposed to running exhibitions and multiple advertising channels beforehand. Reach is easily scalable with no extra effort. With the campaign, we spread the awareness on the importance of iron and the prevalence of deficiency. We managed to mobilize people to come for hemoglobin testing. We were thus able to come in personal contact with people who need supplements.
The presented campaign was intended for clinical trial recruitment, but the same method could be applied to testing for other health issues and promotion of supplement products, such as vitamin D supplements, blood glucose supplements, and cardiovascular supplements.
We analyzed some of the awarded external marketing campaigns from OTC consumer healthcare brands that can, in our view, be applied to supplement products in a similar way.
Recordati* prepared a campaign to raise awareness for vaginal infections among young women and promote their OTC drug Gynoxin. They used various digital channels, generated 8 million content views on TikTok, and substantially increased Gynoxin’s sell-out and market share.
*Recordati is not our client, they just shared a good marketing case, that is relevant also for supplements.
Recordati wanted to address young Polish women and promote their OTC drug Gynoxin for vaginal infections. Intimate health is still taboo in Poland and the lack of access to knowledge combined with insufficient sexual education have created deceptive and dangerous myths about women’s intimate infections. 1,8 million young women in Poland mostly use digital channels to acquire information, which is inaccurate and potentially harmful.
Recordati’s promotion was not present on channels young women follow. The language they used was dry and medical. To reach a massive untapped target audience, they created a TikTok-based campaign themed #Teztomiałam (#IHadItToo). They used a unique tone of voice the audience could relate to – young, “zero bull****” language and young, appealing visuals. Besides TikTok, they reached girls through 12 female influencers, a website and expert blog, an e-book, a quiz, PR activity, and display ads.
The campaign generated 8 million views on TikTok, 6,4 million views in the display campaign, and 32 thousand platform visits from young women. Gynoxin’s sales have also increased.
This shows that social media can be successfully utilized to create a young premium brand and generate sales of women’s self-care products. A similar campaign could be applied to supplement products with various indications, for example, UTI.
Sanofi* took an out-of-the-box, fresh approach to consumer healthcare advertising and generated 2 million online conversations about their brand Buscopan along with an 80% increase in brand reach.
*Sanofi is not our client, they just shared a good marketing case, that is relevant also for supplements.
During London’s Fashion Week, Sanofi created a campaign called “Fashion Cramps”. The ads in the campaign featured a trio of models wearing designer clothing complete with detailed descriptions of the apparel along with the symptoms of IBS. The campaign created a disruption during a popular event and consequently reached a large audience, got plenty of free publicity, and caused a substantial increase in brand awareness. The timeliness of the campaign played a big role in its success, along with its omnichannel presence (they used social media, digital OOH placements, and print).
The campaign has driven 2 million conversations online and its creativity got global press coverage. Bucsopan’s conversation reach was increased by 80%, with the campaign contributing to 20% of Buscopan’s global conversation.
This shows that healthcare marketing can be beyond the medical field. When it’s disruptive and creative, it’s more effective. Using pop-culture moments for marketing can also make such campaigns feel more relatable.
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