A fresh look at advertising

pharmafile | September 11, 2006 | Feature | Medical Communications |  advertising 

Mary Poppins knew only too well that a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. But in these sugar-free days, what makes our medicines' advertising go down well? Are our creative communications still in the best of health; what's causing blood pressures to rise; and what's in need of intensive care?

A good place to look for answers is the annual Best of Health Awards ceremony, which gives an insight into the current trends and direction of movement within pharma advertising, recognising as it does creative excellence in communications with a healthcare message  encompassing Rx, OTC and consumer. With a great deal of prestige attached to these awards, the showcase gallery provides an ideal opportunity for everyone in the industry to compare and contrast each others work, to pick up new ideas, and to see what's hot  and what's not.

Best of Health chairman, and creative director of Grey Healthcare Tracey Henry said, in her opinion, the work on show was better than ever. "Standards are going up. This year, we have seen some really good, cleverly thought-out ideas, executed with very high production values. There are some small creative agencies that are really upping the ante."

In years gone by, major agencies, such as Junction 11 and Woolley Pau have dominated the proceedings, but this year, it was noticeable that there was a wider spread of winners.

From the 217 entries into the 2006 competition, there were five Special awards, 24 Silver awards and 78 Bronze awards, but no Golds. The judges were very tough and very self-regulating, Tracey Henry explained. "They felt that the work was good, but were only going to give a Gold to work that was exceptional."

Does creativity work?

It has not escaped the notice of the independent agencies just how well they performed at this year's show. Langland's And ODonnell believes that independent agencies have a creative advantage because they can accept a lower profit margin in the pursuit of creative excellence, whereas global network agencies may have to sacrifice funds in order to maintain the margins set by the group. He said: "At Langland, we work to an ethos of always exceeding our clients' expectations. Sometimes this does not make financial sense for the agency, but we do it because it makes sense for the client and the brand in the long term."

So does a more creative approach guarantee success? On this point, Hamish Pringle, Director General of the IPA is clear: "No communication is truly creative unless it creates a significant uplift in sales or awareness. I'm convinced Clear Marketing Communication's Best in Show ad will have sent many smokers to the ASH website seeking health advice. We should learn just how many at the 2007 IPA Effectiveness Awards which prove the return on marketing investment."

Frank Walters, Creative Director of Paling Walters, took a Silver for his agency's  Xenical ads. He believes that creativity should always evoke an emotional response: "When we started working on Xenical, the client wanted something that would challenge doctors to take action to help obese patients. The brief was 'scare us'. So we did. The result is not just creatively successful, but has changed doctors' perceptions to an extent that has been obvious in sales. That's what creativity can achieve."

The Xenical campaign has certainly achieved the desired response, but do doctors themselves really appreciate a more creative approach? Someone who has tested more doctors' creative reflexes than most is Jon Freeman, Director of Synergy Healthcare Research, who said: "To communicate effectively, advertising has to cut through the thousands of competing messages that doctors are bombarded with each day – so innovative advertising is essential.

"If a more creative approach includes finding new ways of communicating 'generic messages', then doctors do react positively to this – certainly, they can't be bored into prescribing. However, research shouldn't ask doctors whether they appreciate creative ads – good research should be designed to see if advertising does the job it was designed to do."

Dominic Owens agrees: "In research, doctors, like all respondents, prefer things that fit in with their current thinking and tend to reject new approaches. But creative and innovative ads are more likely to achieve their objectives, even with doctors, because they are more likely to be noticed, considered and remembered."

Dare to be different

And for anyone who is still in any doubt whether a really creative approach is worthwhile, Dean Woolley has some excellent advice in his book 'How To Pick Up People at Parties And Other Tips For Marketing Executives'. He says: "People call innovative creative work edgy. While clients who commission it are considered brave. But surely, the real risk-takers are the advertisers who spend their shareholders money on campaigns that do nothing to set their brands apart from the competition?

"Differentiation is one of the most valuable gifts advertising can bestow on a brand. Yet most advertisers seem content  and some positively clamour  to run campaigns that fit in rather than stand out."

How creative are we?

To help marketers recognise good ideas more readily, a new guide, 'Judging Creative Ideas', has been launched. The coalition of marketing associations behind the guide says its research showed there is a need for the agenda of both sides to meet, and that by promoting improved client-agency relationships, a better understanding of all the relevant issues can be achieved by all concerned.

The guide, which can be found online at www.ipa.co.uk/documents/JUDGING_CREATIVE.pdf , is supported by the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising), ISBA which represents 380 UK advertisers, MCCA (Marketing Communications Consultants Association) and the Public Relations Consultants Association.

The research carried out by the associations found a number of disparities in the views of clients and their agencies. Some 97% of clients surveyed thought the most important evaluation criterion for ideas was whether they achieved their objectives, compared to only 55% of agencies. Moreover, 72% of agencies said creative work should be true to the brand, while only 36% of clients believed their agencies meant it.

The aim of 'Judging Creative Ideas', is to provide marketing professionals in pharma and other industries with a best-practice guide to assessing the ideas their communications agencies produce. Written by the IPA's partner of creative matters, Patrick Collister, the guide lists ways in which client-agency relations can be improved to create more dynamic business-building ideas.

"In my days as a creative director I often wished someone somewhere would take on the task of trying to teach clients about how to judge ideas. I am delighted it turned out to be me," Collister said.

"The guide is shaped by interviews with some of the most influential people in marketing and advertising today and is of great importance to both clients and agencies alike.

Judging ideas is never easy, but the guide, through the contributors, offers shared criteria for more effective relationships and has certainly helped me come to a better understanding of what is required."

Combining global and local

So, pharma advertising within the UK is healthy and thriving, and there is help and advice aplenty on hand. However, the same cannot be said of international pharma advertising. More than any other area, this is the one in need of intensive care. Vestiges of creative thinking are only just clinging to life, often suffocated by self-imposed rules, regulations, giant logos and global imagery, which can have little relevance to the audience these ads seek to inspire.

One plain-speaking creative director, who did not wish to be named, said: "You'd have to be blind, deaf, dumb and stupid not to see how globalisation has affected our industry. These campaigns usually cater to the lowest common denominator, failing to recognise that all markets are different. To expect a single image to transcend all cultures and stages of a product life cycle is too much." Many others echo his concerns, and some share his view that the tide will turn.

The global creative model, exemplified by brands such as Nike, McDonald's and Dove, is frequently held up as an example of how to successfully combine global and local to maximise return. We all recognise these brands' identities and we have a sense of security knowing that the brand experience will be consistent wherever we are in the world. But what's more clever still is that people believe McDonald's, Nike and Dove have a place in their lives, regardless of whether they live in Tipperary or Timbuktu.

These brands use their agency's specialist local knowledge and creative talents to make the global strategy relevant to their local audience. For example, the Dove real women campaign has consistent type, photography style and strategy across the world, but local agencies find their own relevant expression of these women. Millions of women of every nationality feel understood by a brand that embraces cellulite, curves and normalness.

Would it have been the same with a 'globalised woman' and a giant logo? I doubt it. Even a brand like Virgin, often hailed as a good example of a consistent global approach, adapts its communication to reflect local ideas of wit and challenges to convention. What's always consistent, though, is the strong identity and brand values.

Dominic Owens, head of brand planning at Seven Stones, says: "The influence of global marketing groups on advertising creativity varies by company, depending on whether the group believes in consistency in strategy or in execution. If it is strategy, the effect is usually positive because positioning and imagery can talk to customers in their own language. If the global group wants the same visual to run everywhere in the world (and it is often one of happy, smiling patients and doctors), it can result in anodyne positioning and imagery that removes the ability to make a differentiated, customer focused offer.

"Global/regional marketing campaigns are great when they work well as they allow a high standard of debate about the right strategy. But it's a nightmare when a powerful local campaign gets replaced by an image produced by an overseas agency, with no account of UK customer attitudes.

"The healthcare purchasing process and the attitudes of those involved to treatments varies hugely by country. One worldwide visual cannot possibly appeal everywhere, however good it is. Consumer marketing usually only standardises design elements like the logo and brand colours, rarely the advertising. So why is pharmaceutical marketing behaving differently?"

A bright e-future

What was clear at the awards, however, was that there were positive signs that healthcare advertising is learning from its consumer cousins. Backing up this indication, Richard Rayment, joint creative director of GSW Junction 11, said: "It is really good to see more agencies pushing for proper advertising campaigns with three or more expressions of their idea, rather than just a single execution."

As well as there being new award categories for international work, new media was an area where a huge untapped potential was recognised; e-detailing is poised to change the way pharmaceutical companies sell their drugs, and, as such, it represents an exciting opportunity for creative communication. And ODonnell, creative director of Langland, winner of a bronze award for its Seroquel e-detail, explained: "So many detail aids are just white pages with lots of charts. As a rep going out, you've got to get cut-through. Electronic detailing allows you to bring your brand idea to life. You can use animation, moving image and achieve high quality, TV production values."

The future of e-detailing looks bright  for the percentage of doctors who refuse to see representatives, or for those brands without a salesforce, medical internet portals offering an e-detail facility are an attractive option. These portals mean healthcare professionals can view drug information at their leisure, and companies are able to control the messages they wish to send out, so it will be interesting to see whether the traditional agencies, or the new media agencies, are the ones to make the most of these new commercial and creative opportunities.

Getting the message across

Successful product launches are all about differentiation and standing out from the competition. A  truly creative advertising campaign is one way of achieving this and can make all the difference.

With Perfalgan, the first intravenous version of paracetamol, Bristol-Myers Squibb needed to stake its claim in a long-established and crowded marketplace.

In tablet form, the painkiller has been widely used for more than 100 years and is available in the UK in more than 90 different forms, with and without a prescription.

Perfalgan was launched onto the UK market in April 2004, where it is indicated for the short-term treatment of moderate pain  especially after surgery  and fever, where an intravenous administration is deemed necessary.

Liz Anderson, business manager at Bristol-Myers Squibb, said: "Creativity has played an important role in the Perfalgan sales campaign. It shows the right creative approach can turn an otherwise ordinary campaign into an extraordinary one.

"Paracetamol is a well-known and trusted product, but it is not inherently new. By working with a marketing agency with a creative approach to our sales campaign, we built on the brand equity of paracetamol and then complemented it with a campaign that focused on what's new about our product  such as the benefits of an intravenous formulation of paracetamol."

These benefits include its use by patients who cannot take medicines by mouth or in whom a rapid effect is required.

Wooley Pau's award-winning advertising for Perfalgan highlighted the hospital setting for its administration with an arresting and imginative use of photography.

Commenting on the advert Anderson said: "A creative approach enabled us to empathise with our customers by appealing to their past experience of paracetamol yet creating enthusiasm for the new aspects of the brand."

Sarah Sowerby is a freelance writer. She can be contacted at wordbird243@btinternet.com