As first reported by attorney Mark Senak of Eye on FDA, Pharma is jumping on the YouTube video bandwagon with mixed strategies and varying results. Abbott, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi Pasteur feature what could best be described as “corporate communications meets the kitchen sink.” But it’s product promotion where things really get interesting.
Sixty Second Case Studies
Let’s take a quick look at two great uses of YouTube for pharmaceutical marketing:
- Sanofi-Aventis’ “Go Insulin YouTube Channel” for Lantus
- AstraZeneca’s “My Asthma Story YouTube Channel” for Symbicort (YouTube Channel pulled)
Best Practices – Go Insulin
Go Insulin, an unbranded YouTube channel, focuses on patient experiences with insulin. Matched with an accompanying microsite it breathes excitement into insulin education. It’s tough working within YouTube’s design constraints, yet agency Intouch Solutions pulls it all together:
- The YouTube video begins on page load which gets the action started right away.
- Seven “personal stories” which makes it feel like there’s something going on with this channel and this story
- Calls to action including site registration, creating a discussion guide to take to your next doctor appointment, and addressing fears: “Myth or Reality – having to take insulin means I have failed…”
It’s interesting to note how much effort went into soliciting user feedback, which is at the heart of social media marketing. Go Insulin invites the viewer to rate both the videos on YouTube and the pages on the unbranded site.
Room for Improvement – My Asthma Story
I wanted to like “My Asthma Story.” First person narratives are compelling (I executive produced a number of patient education films on the subject when I was president of OnLine Communications) but this branded channel falls flat.
- The design and layout fail. While it’s normal for a site to look slightly different on a Mac vs. PC, or Firefox vs Internet Explorer, it should not completely fall apart.
- The call to actions are not clickable. Nor is the product logo. What’s the point of featuring them in the most valuable real estate on the page if they’re not driving sales?
- Users are invited to submit their own story and “it might be selected to be appear on this channel page.” What’s the incentive?
- The videos cannot be rated, nor embedded, which is a standard feature of YouTube.
Lessons Learned
Both products are to be commended for taking the bold step of using YouTube and honoring the spirit of “fair and balanced” in the absence of any clear regulatory guidelines. Clearly social media promises to invigorate health care marketing but the rules of engagement are different. Consider factors for success like:
- Don’t make viewers think about where or what to click
- If you intend to use YouTube to drive traffic to your microsite or branded site, make it easy and obvious
- Keep the P.I. one click away
- Allow embedding and rating when available. This is the heart and soul of social media. Use it to your advantage
What Do You Think?
Am I being too hard on My Asthma Story? Do the pages load on your laptops and desktops OK? Is this type of marketing going to eventually displace traditional DTC? Please leave a comment. I’d like to know what you think.
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