Posts Tagged ‘health’

Polling Readers on a Hard Call

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

It’s time for some fun on a Thursday, folks. One of my readers, who I am choosing not to identify, pointed me to an article on Newsweek.com about the rising issue of low testosterone among men. It seems that as many as 13 million middle-aged men in the United States suffer from this issue. For some, the answer is increasingly a prescription for a steroid such as AndroGel, but new and old studies show that simply having an erection—including by watching porn—is enough to get low testosterone levels up to snuff. And so this, dear readers, is the question of the day: Should AndroGel be offering free porn on its website?

Today, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, the maker of AndroGel, is pursuing the classic strategy of driving awareness of a condition it calls “Low T” through TV advertising and a website. The company hopes that the condition is recognized by men as much as “ED” or “BPH“. If you’re male, watch sports, and haven’t seen the ads yet, you soon will.

Driving awareness of a real health issue that guys don’t talk about, and using the safety of a private website to answer questions, can be very meaningful. But I wonder if there is an opportunity for AndroGel to do more than simply motivate men to, once again, ask their doctor if a new drug is right for them. The website for AndroGel only mentions various prescription answers to low testosterone, thus missing the chance to educate men on other potential (ahem, natural) remedies.

Why not follow the path of Tylenol’s “Feel Better” campaign, which has used print and outdoor ads to educate consumers about how they can avoid headaches by eating breakfast or drinking plenty of water, and soothe muscle aches by getting a partner to massage their shoulders?

There is certainly no undersupply of adult content on the Web that men can use to raise their testosterone levels without medication. After all, Newsweek reports that:

Forty million people, most of whom are men and a large chunk of them married, visit a porn site each month. A quarter of all Internet search engine requests and 35 percent of all downloads are for porn.”

But AndroGel could do more to bring a full solution to Low T men and attract attention around the issue it solves. At minimum, the brand could provide information about how there are natural ways to increase testosterone levels. This would increase trust among patients and prescribing doctors alike that Solvay is not simply pushing pills. Thinking more creatively, AndroGel might provide tips on how men can safely enjoy adult material without encountering problems on office computers or being surprised by family members. It might seem silly, but check out (NSFW) this guy whose porn screensaver kicked in during a meeting. This might cause some “attention” in the media, but isn’t that what marketers aim for? And if the marketing is a meaningful solution to this issue, the brand is standing on firm ground.

Now, all giggles aside, I don’t seriously believe AndroGel should or will actively encourage porn viewership, but there are little things it can do to better deliver on its mission, no matter how stiff the marketing challenge.

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Posted in healthcare, Solution | 1 Comment »

Philips Wins ‘Advertising As Service’ Award

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

For the past two weeks, Advertising Age has been sharing case studies that have come out of the annual Festival of Media Awards. Last week I hammered award-winner Gatorade, which was praised by the awards jury but managed to offend gamers. But this week I’m happy to praise Philips, which found a way to add value to China’s crowded hospitals.

For more than three years, Philips has stuck with a campaign that has meaningful marketing written all over it. Dubbed “Sense and Simplicity,” Philips is investing its marketing dollars across the board to save time for and sanity of its consumers, thus earning brand respect and product interest. The campaign first got recognition when Philips paid magazines $2 million to remove the annoying subscription cards from magazines for a month and allow readers to flip straight from the cover to the table of contents. The company also has paid for free access to paid areas of ESPN.com and WSJ.com, and it bought up blocks of commercials on shows such as 60 Minutes and gave the time back to programmers.

The company later created a service called Philips Simplicity Concierge that answers texted questions from travelers in major cities. According to a 2007 article in The New York Times, Philips committed about 25% of its advertising budget to such value-added efforts.

Now Philips has applied the campaign to its medical-products business in China with a very compelling solution to the country’s notoriously crowded hospitals, where people can wait three hours to see a physician. Philips created and installed terminals in 10 major hospitals where patients can enter their phone number to reserve their place in line and get a text message when they are near the front of the line. This simple but effective tool is used by 125 people per day. In a second effort, Philips teamed up with the Public Health Bureau to drive awareness of the country’s system of smaller, newer health clinics as an alternative to hospitals. According to research from Philips, these efforts are saving the equivalent of 156 years in total waiting time per year.

What I love most about this campaign as a Marketing with Meaning case study is that it shows a killer B2B campaign. Yep, although all benefits go to consumers, the company’s efforts are actually completely targeted at the hospitals and clinics that purchase Philips MRI, ultrasound, and other products. The brand’s waiting-room texting kiosks and campaign to drive patients to community clinics are both clearly benefits to the hospitals they sell devices to. And at a time when healthcare costs are under extreme pressure around the world, these added-value services help Philips drive loyalty with hospital administrators.

Meanwhile, of course, Philips is able to deliver a valuable service to its consumer-products target market at a very meaningful time. The brand is seen as a hero when people are under stress and worried about their health. And when the time comes to look at big-screen TVs or DVD players, that positive brand experience can have a big impact on the bottom line.

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Posted in B2B, healthcare, Solution, Uncategorized | No Comments »