GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is a giant manufacturer of prescription drugs, vaccines, and consumer health products. For those of you who do not know, marketing pharmaceutical products can be tough due to the regulations set in many countries to avoid misleading information, as it directly affects human health.
What was astonishing, is what GSK made back in 2017 GSK when it adopted a digital-only approach, positioning YouTube as a TV channel and running YouTube-only campaigns. The results were stunning!
The goal was to maximize their reach across the brand’s target audience. Secondly, increase efficiency against waste.
Challenge
In a world where people use multiple screens at once, it is not easy to test the efficiency of an online campaign, if it adds any benefit to reaching out to more people and whether it was worth the effort. They knew that TV was the major medium that was helping them expand. But it was at the expense of running at a higher cost.
This also meant that they would bump into the same consumer over and over – without creating any additional gradual growth.
Strategy
Therefore, GSK arranged to test an online-only approach. This was an opportunity to not only test the benefits of the online world but also see if this is truly the highest they could reach.
Not only that but YouTube – and most digital marketing platforms – provides better targeting and a high-quality audience that are truly interested in their products. For instance, Sensodyne, Panadol Cold and Flu, Parodontax, Panadol Extra, and Otrivin were intended to reach men and women between the ages of 18 and 44. While Panadol Joint targeted people over the age of 35 and Voltaren targeted people between the ages of 30 and 50.
Read: WHAT WILL GSK BE LIKE AFTER HEALTHCARE UNIT ‘HALEON’ OFFSHOOT
The online approach enables us to make profound analyses, measure brand impact in real-time, and optimize plans in the middle of the campaign, unlike the TV approach, which they had to wait six weeks to make any modifications.
Outcome
- The only communication medium – helped all the brands transcend KPIs and made up for the break from TV ads. YouTube generated TV-equivalent reach with less paid media.
- They gained a 28% brand recall uplift during that month.
- The market share of their top brand increased by 5% effectiveness YoY, and by 0.2% month over a month despite the category dropping by 2.6% during the same period.
“We overachieved all reach targets, reaching over 80% of the target audience for top brands within the YouTube universe across Arabia.” – Unusheah Khan, Brand Manager, Sensodyne.
Read: A DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY SPECIALIZED IN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY
Conclusion
Using the YouTube strategy has been effective in mass reach, and has had a true impact on sales and business.
Do you want to make an impact by marketing your brand online? Contact one of our team members and get more people to engage with you online now!
