What a promotional campaign is made of
A pharmaceutical promotional campaign joins a brand strategy to materials with different audiences, purposes and formats. Format choices shape the brief, while a new-market launch needs materials suited to local requirements.
Campaign strategy
The recommended campaign sequence is:
- Understand the market thoroughly.
- Develop marketing objectives and strategies.
- Design and implement an integrated campaign.
- Track sales and carefully re-evaluate the strategy.
Brand and communications strategy must exist before materials are produced, and the materials should be consistent with the company’s image and brand strategy. Product positioning guides key messages used across marketing communications.
Audiences and channels
In a 2008 pharmaceutical-marketing account, promotion by representatives to prescribing physicians was central, using detail aids, slim jims, flashcards, bifolds, file cards, reprints, booklets, pocket guides, disease cards and posters. Sampling put products in physicians’ offices, where packaging needed to stand out among other samples. Consumer advertising was supplemented by brochures, books, CDs, coupons, newsletters and direct mail, while pharmacists and managed-care administrators received trade materials, newsletters and continuing education opportunities. One practitioner considered company conference booths effectively mandatory but not particularly effective.
A 2008 campaign example involving a Procter & Gamble ulcerative-colitis drug identified restricted representative access, limited formularies and competition as challenges. Personal promotion communicated efficacy, safety, cost and convenience, with laptop sales aids highlighting promotions, references and other products. Patient-feedback programmes reinforced positive aspects of the physician relationship and product, especially with coupons, while teleconferences, podcasts and webcast speaker programmes provided further educational opportunities.
The practitioner considered first diagnosis the ideal patient entry point, making starter kits and educational materials critical, with follow-up adherence programmes providing continuity. Branded consumer-health website content and paid search were intended to increase the probability of searches reaching the product, and a prominent personality or celebrity spokesperson was considered another effective approach. Pharmacy partnerships reached patients needing refills, while in-service training and recognition events targeted nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and assistants. The aim was for physicians and patients to associate the disorder with the company’s drug.
Representative handouts and other formats
Representative handouts have distinct uses and production requirements; the following specifications were described in 2009.
| Format | Content and use |
|---|---|
| Detail aid | The representative’s foundation brochure, carrying core campaign messages and product positioning; typically 4–26 pages, usually 9 × 12 inches. |
| Slim jim | Identical content in a 4 × 9 inch format that is easier to carry, flip through one-handed and leave in a physician’s coat pocket; usually 50% cheaper to produce than a detail aid. |
| File card | Slim-jim content on 3.5 × 5 inch card stock, presumably for later filing and reference. |
| Flashcard | A one- or two-page advertisement, either a leave-behind with an abbreviated package insert on the back or a non-leave-behind with essentially the same copy, usually more advertising on the back and possibly a package insert. |
| Bi-fold | A shorter detail aid focused on one campaign aspect, such as a competitor comparison; may include an abbreviated package insert. |
| Tri-fold | A bi-fold with an additional fold-out page, allowing six pages of copy rather than four. |
| Reprint carrier or holder | A favourable published clinical study in a holder: either a single sheet with a front pocket and promotional messages and references on the back, or a bi-fold with two extra marketing pages. |
| Pocket guide | A coat-pocket booklet of 4–20 pages about disease diagnosis and treatment, likely to include the manufacturer’s drug in the treatment section. |
| Disease card | Usually a laminated, two-sided 4 × 6 inch disease illustration for a physician explaining it to a patient. |
| Dosing card | The same format and use as a disease card, focused on a drug’s dosage and administration. |
| Instruction book | Detailed use instructions, usually for complex drugs, devices or biologics, ranging from file-card to detail-aid size and generally illustrated. |
| Newsletter | Scientific or promotional material covering varied topics, often published by a company or contracted medical education company to educate primary-care physicians about a disease or drug. |
The specifications differ from a 2008 account, which described detail aids as up to twenty pages and slim jims as condensed versions, rather than identical content in smaller dimensions.
Other communication formats include slide kits for opinion leaders, monographs, brochures, posters, direct mail, symposium materials and occasional press releases, with video and website content extending the range digitally. Brand books or brand guidelines are internal global materials explaining what the brand stands for, how it is expressed and how creative elements fit together, to help employees understand and support it. A 2013 agency account also described occasional peer-reviewed article assignments, sometimes as “white papers” presenting data and verifiable sources supporting company claims.
Format choices in the brief
Format knowledge supports these recommended client discussions:
- Establish whether a conventional detail aid will later become a file card or slim jim; this affects copy and graph density because a reduced graph may become illegible.
- Match the format to the objective: low awareness of a therapeutic class may warrant a longer detail aid, while defending an established product’s safety or efficacy against competition may suit a bi-fold or tri-fold.
- Propose new materials, a series or a staged approach rather than treating every assignment as a one-time piece.
Competitive audits and pitch research
Competitors’ promotional and educational materials can inform differentiation in branding, creative strategy and messages. In 2016, CD Promo was dtw Research’s visual library of US and international pharmaceutical promotional images, with related SnapShot and Message View products; its name reflected earlier delivery on CDs. An account executive could order competing products’ patient or professional materials for a formal or informal brand audit by creative and account-service teams. Competitors’ colours might prompt alternatives, safety positioning might suggest an efficacy emphasis, and messages could suggest extensions or claims to refute. Printed pieces could supply content missing from product websites and give a fuller picture of brand activity.
New-business pitches require knowledge of the therapeutic category, business and financial landscape, product and competitors. In 2016, agencies could buy reports or portal access from DataMonitor Healthcare, an industry-research company whose analysts drew on government sites such as ClinicalTrials.gov, company sites, financial databases and medical associations. Compiled research could save substantial time compared with in-house searches during a fast pitch process.
For a hypothetical monoclonal-antibody launch in stage 3 breast cancer, the team would need to understand the disease, current and future treatments, the product’s first- or second-line place in the protocol and patient demographics. Reports could inform strengths–weaknesses–opportunities–threats analyses, creative briefs and strategic documents for the pitch and subsequent creative ideas.
New-market launch materials
Companies can launch in several countries together or one country at a time. Local materials need to communicate product features, benefits and risks with reference to local or regional populations. Information may come from local clinical or observational studies and medical surveys. The wider launch programme can include promotional materials alongside non-promotional information and publications, including monographs, brochures, slide kits, leave-behinds, sales aids, CME slides, training modules, opinion-leader documents, posters, abstracts and journal articles. Materials should fit the product’s scientific and ethical positioning and local requirements.