Healthcare Engagement Strategy Awards: Case Studies

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A wicked social media initiative by McNeil Consumer Healthcare (Division of Johnson and Johnson)

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FaceBook Healthcare-Related Ads (November 2010)

Here are some of the healthcare-related ads that were targeted to my personal profile on FaceBook during the month of November 2010.  All previous posts on FaceBook healthcare-related ads that targeted my FaceBook profile can be found here.

FaceBook ads stats feature of the month: Comscore.com reported that from July-September 2010, FaceBook had the top online ad impressions at 297 billion.  This represented over 23% of the online display advertising market.  I would like to know how many of these ads appeared on FaceBook profile pages (many of the ads that I post in my blog come from the FaceBook ad board, and not from my profile page) and how many clicks they got.

This month, I will comment on the ‘Will Grandma die’ FaceBook ad.  I am just one person, and my opinion on this ad is my own.  Others may have a similar or different opinion based on their experience and their personal preferences.  Therefore, I encourage you to add your feedback on this particular ad as well, whether you like it or not, or on any of the other ads included in this post as well.

I was drawn to comment on the ‘Will Grandma die’ ad because I am familiar with VirtualHospice.ca‘s unique and much needed services.  I like this particular ad very much because it targets an audience that may not be in an emotional state to search out this type of service, yet they could benefit so much from it.  Therefore, having an emotionally-charged ad flashed in front of them while they are on FaceBook, one that may hit home with the viewer, seems like an effective way to get the right person’s attention.  The title and text are well crafted in a simple yet very clear fashion.  The chosen image complements the copy very well.  In its entirety, this ad tells an emotional story quite effectively.  There is no branding of VirtualHospice.ca in the ad, but this is not what is important to their target audience.

Also, although there are no words that spell out the call-to-action, it is evident that the organization is trying to drive traffic to its website as the website is clearly listed below the copy.

In my opinion, VirtualHospice.ca did a fantastic job with this ad.

Here are other ads that appeared on my FaceBook profile over the month of November.  Note: Ddrops and Kidney Cancer Canada are clients.

Every once in a while, I see a non-FaceBook online healthcare-related ad that catches my interest.  I capture these in my FaceBook healthcare-related ads post as added value to you, the reader.

The GSK ad was found on the paper.li e-newspaper by Ddrops Company (client), Canadian-Mom-Bloggers.  For those not familiar with the paper.li e-newsletters, the posts and ads are automatically selected via the paper.li process.  The hosting organization has no control over what articles or ads appear.  The only control that the hosting organization has is either the Twitter hashtag that will be focused on, or the Twitter list.  I am a fan of paper.li e-newsletters, but I do wish that more prominence would be given to the originator of the article, and less to the person who posted it (but that’s another topic).

The other two were Yahoo ads.

Tell me what you think of these ads in the comments below.

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:

FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Telus social media case study: “Like to Give” campaign

Every once in a while, an organization stands out from the rest as a good corporate citizen.  For the past couple of years, I have been watching the good deeds by Telus which are positively influencing healthcare in Canada.  In fact, they are a sponsor of one of my favorite children non-profit organizations, Upopolis.  Here is a statement that is found on the Info tab of their FaceBook page:

We give where we live. TELUS supports local communities and charities across the country.

This week, I saw the following sponsored ad on my personal FaceBook profile:

When you click on the “Telus” link, you are brought to the “Like to give” tab on the Telus FaceBook page.

Update November 26 2010:  Pic with all 12 charities that were included in “Like to Give” Telus campaign

 

Telus allows comments to be added to their FaceBook posts, but they do not allow wall posts to be initiated by others.  I sent them a note on Twitter asking why this was the case, but 24+ hours later,  I still had  not heard anything from them.  My personal guess is that they do not allow others to initiate posts because they want to avoid negative dicussions being initiated by consumers on their page.  This seems to be an issue on the Telus YouTube channel.  Based on my research, Telus appears to get their fair share of negative comments on social networks by consumers, so if they want to avoid similar issues that Nestle had with their FaceBook page, they probably made the right choice by not allowing others to iniative wall posts.  Keep in mind though that the biggest issue with the Nestle case was the way that they handled the situation. However, Telus is allowing consumers to have a voice as as those who ‘like’ the Telus FaceBook page can add comments to posts initiated by Telus themselves.

Because of the high level of negative comments, I think it is wise that Telus’ Twitter strategy is to have a Twitter profile that is focused on marketing messages (@Telus) and one that focuses on providing consumers with support on Telus services (@TelusSupport).  This allows @Telus to remain focused on their positive marketing messages, whereas the @TelusSupport deals with all the questions and complaints.  However, I do find that the general @Telus account engages too little with the audience.  I did a quick monitoring check and noticed that several people have posted about Telus’ ‘Like to give’ campaign with a mention of @Telus.  This means that Telus does not even have to monitor to be aware of the mention – these public mentions can be found right there in their Twitter profile.  However, I have yet to see a ‘thanks’ sent out to any of those people, including myself.  This is not the end of the world, but it would be a courteous act which would humanize the organization in the eyes of consumers.

I would like to wish Telus and their chosen non-profit organizations the best of luck in reaching their goals with the ‘Like to give’ campaign.  I am not a client of Telus, but their acts of generosity certainly catch my attention.  If ever I am in the market to switch, Telus will at least be top of mind as part of my research.

What else would you like to see Telus do to promote their ‘Like to give’ campaign on social networks?

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

FaceBook Healthcare-Related Ads (October 2010)

Here are some of the healthcare-related ads that were targeted to my personal profile on FaceBook during the month of October 2010.  Previous posts on FaceBook healthcare-related ads that targeted my FaceBook profile can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

So far, I have not been commenting on any of the ads.  Starting as of now, I will select one ad to comment on per post.  I am just one person, and my opinion on these ads is my own.  Others may have a similar or different opinion based on their experience and their personal preferences.  Therefore, I encourage you to add your feedback on this particular ad as well, whether you like it or not.

My commentary on the “Do you have MS” ad by PatientsLikeMe.com :

What I like about this ad:

• The title clearly identifies who should be interested in seeing this ad.  People who see the ad will know right from the start whether they should read further or not.
• The website is identified in writing.  In this situation, the website address is the brand name.  Therefore it is beneficial to spell it out as part of the text of the ad, rather than just linking to the site.  Whether people click on the link or not, they are exposed to the website / brand name.
• There is a clear call-to-action to join the community at no charge.
• The value of joining the community is well established in the text;  sharing one’s experience with over 15,000 other people who are ‘like me’.

What I don’t like about this ad:

• The visual used for this ad does not convey a wordless message that would be understood right away by the audience that they are trying to reach. By this, I mean that if all text were to be removed, the image would probably not draw the attention of their target audience, somebody with MS who is not a member of PatientsLikeMe.com.  However, I believe that the image may have meaning to target audience members after they read the title and accompanying text.

Was the ad successful?  Did the PatientsLikeMe.com MS community grow its member base?

Oftentimes, it is difficult to answer this question unless somebody who is part of the organization is willing to provide you with the data.  But in this case, we have a soft measure to share.  It appears as though the PatientsLikeMe.com MS community has grown as the ad stated that there were over 15,000 members in the MS community on PatientsLikeMe.com, whereas the website now states that their MS community consists of over 22,000 members, 579 of which are new members as of this month.  I say this is a ‘soft’ measure because the data on the ad is not realtime.  It appears as though the data on the website is real-time, but unfortunately I do not have access to the number of members of this community prior to the implementation of the FaceBook ad.  Of course, there are probably many other drivers for this growth in member base.

FaceBook advertising update: Have you noticed that you are now seeing 4 FaceBook ads on the right hand side of your profile instead of only 3?  This is a smart move on behalf of FaceBook.  This should encourage more people and organizations to advertise on FaceBook as they now have a greater chance to appear on the main real estate portion of the FaceBook ad – the Profile page.  I don’t have stats on this, but I highly doubt that many people click on the “More ads” button at the bottom of the ads that appear on their Profile page … unless they are geeks like me .

This post is by no means an endorsement of any of the products or services depicted in the ads.  The ads were not scrutinized to determine whether they fit within the Canadian regulatory guidelines.

I want to hear from you.  What do you like or dislike about these ads?  Do you have any personal experience with FaceBook healthcare ads that you would like to share?

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

FaceBook and Online Healthcare-Related Ads (July and August 2010)

Every month, I post healthcare-related FaceBook ads that appear on my FaceBook profile.  Since I took some time off during the Summer, I decided to post the ads that I saw during the months of July and August in one post.  Previous posts on FaceBook healthcare-related ads that targeted my FaceBook profile can be found here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

FaceBook is always changing things.  According to All FaceBook, we might see some changes in FaceBook ads, as they might have a four star rating.  That could be interesting for marketers, especially for those who test multiple ads.

This post is by no means an endorsement of any of the products or services depicted in the ads, nor is it a critique of the ads themselves.

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Yahoo ad:

FaceBook and Online Healthcare-Related Ads (June 2010)

Pharma companies are starting to be brave enough to use FaceBook as an advertising medium to reach the Canadian market.  This month, Bayer, Merck Serono, McNeil Consumer Healthcare and other healthcare organizations targeted me with FaceBook ads.  An detailed analysis of the campaign surrounding the Real MS Voices ad (by Merck Serono and Merck) can be found here:

Non-profit organizations continue to use FaceBook as an advertising avenue:

Medical providers also use FaceBook advertising with the hope of finding new clients:

Miscellaneous others:

And a few healthcare-related ads that I spotted on my Yahoo account (all of which I believe would be ideal for promotion via social media advertising and other activities):

Previous posts on FaceBook healthcare-related ads that targeted my FaceBook profile can be found here, here, here, here, here and here.

This post is by no means an endorsement of any of the products or services depicted in the ads, nor is it a critique of the ads themselves.

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

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Merck Serono Dives in Social Media with an MS Film Contest

What better way to celebrate Canada Day than by focusing on a pharma social media campaign that seems to fit within all the Canadian regulatory guidelines, and presents the opportunity to thoroughly engage with patients; the Real MS Voices campaign by Merck Serono and Merck.

Earlier this week, I saw the following FaceBook ad on my personal FaceBook profile;

Although the font is very small and faint, you can spot the corporate names Merck Serono and Merck at the bottom of the ad.  When you click on the ad, you are brought to the new online MS community, Real MS Voices, developed by Merck Serono and Merck.  The objective of the site is to encourage MS patients to submit video entries as part of a contest.  This is a global campaign that was launched on May 26 2010, yet it appears that most of the activity on the various platforms actually got started later in June 2010.

It is a global campaign, however the site is not intended for use by residents of the US or the UK. UK residents are encouraged to get involved with Real MS by visiting the UK site, whereas US residents are suggested to visit the EMD Serono site to find out more about life with MS.  No restrictions are mentioned for Canadian site visitors.

Registering for the site is simple and takes a few seconds only.  Since anybody can sign up, this site would be considered ‘open’ to the public, or non-gated from a regulatory perspective.

The site boasts several social media platforms where MS patients can engage with Real MS Voices; an online community, RSS feed, Twitter, FaceBook and a blog (comments are encouraged on the blog).  The video contest will also include some social media component as people will be voting for their favorites online.  I’m not sure if this was intentional or not, but the YouTube link to Real MS Voices is missing on the homepage of the site, yet it is listed on the FaceBook ‘Info’ tab.

Online community rules:

The host organization was very wise to allow members to write comments, yet there are community rules that need to be followed.  These are listed on the website and are repeated on the other social media platforms (FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube) as well.  Here are a few conditions that are important for regulatory purposes:

• “Our message boards are moderated on a regular basis.  We will remove inappropriate posts that do not follow our rules for postings on message boards.”

• “MESSAGES WHICH PROMOTE OR DISCUSS ANY MS THERAPY ARE PROHIBITED: we all have opinions about MS treatments. However, if the posts are misleading, misinformed, become solicitations, aggressive, or hurtful to others, they will be removed and the member will be contacted to discuss proper guidelines and possible consequences.   Messages containing names (either brand or generic) of current MS therapies are prohibited and will be removed from the messaging board.”

• “This site does not give medical advice, nor does it provide medical or diagnostic services. Your reliance upon content obtained by you at or through the site is solely at your own risk.”

In fact, even the video contest entry details state that “Entries containing names (either brand or generic) of current MS therapies or drugs in development will not be considered for the Competition or posted on the Real MS website“.

See the FaceBook screenshot below which highlights the community rules.  All community settings also mention that Donna Sullivan is the person behind the community posts.  She is an independent Community Manager, financially supported by Merck Serono S.A. – Geneva, owner of Real MS:

The campaign is brand new, so there are very few members at the moment.  I expect that as awareness of the Real MS Voices campaign grows, so will the level of engagement.  The startup for the campaign is a bit slow so far, but it truly is just the beginning.  The 1st FaceBook post and the 1st Twitter tweet took place on June 25th.  The following are a few screenshots from the FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube profiles to show the level of activity thus far;

So how does Canada fit in?

Canada has a high rate of MS.  The 2008 Atlas of Multiple Sclerosis suggests that MS strikes as many as 240 out of every 100,000 people in Canada.  With so many people affected by this disease, whether they have MS or know somebody with MS, online communities may provide a unique opportunity for people affected with MS to connect with one another.  Here is an article that highlights some benefits and tips for those who have MS and may be interested in online networking.

Allison Zavitz, Marketing Manager, Neurodegenerative Diseases at EMD Serono Canada Inc., confirmed that the Canadian affiliate is taking a passive role in the Real MS Voices program.  While Canadians are allowed to submit and vote on video entries as well as engage with Real MS Voices in the various social media platforms, the campaign is being administered by the global head office.  Allison also confirmed that the Canadian affiliates are not promoting the social network to physicians, nor were they responsible for the FaceBook ad that I saw on my FaceBook profile.  Therefore, she believes that the global team must have set up the FaceBook ads.  Since FaceBook ads can be targeted by geography, this suggests that at least one of the FaceBook ads was set up specifically for Canada.

As far as I can tell, the Real MS Voices campaign is completely within the Canadian pharmaceutical regulatory guidelines.  For more details on how social media fits within the Canadian regulatory guidelines, see Highlights from “Social Media Marketing in Pharma: What Works in Canada”

I look forward to seeing a lot of entries from Canadian MS patients, and hopefully a Canadian winner will be announced as well.

Happy Canada Day,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

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FaceBook Healthcare-Related Ads (May 2010)

May was a busy month for new FaceBook healthcare-related ads … well, at least it was on my FaceBook profile.  The ads that stood out the most were the EpiPen ad (the 1st Canadian pharma FaceBook ad by King Pharmaceuticals) and the Ontario’s Community Pharmacies ads (16 versions of the ad throughout the month).

Previous posts on FaceBook healthcare-related ads that targeted my FaceBook profile can be found here, here, here, here and here.

This post is by no means an endorsement of any of the products or services depicted in the ads, nor is it a critique of the ads themselves.

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

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Angry Pharmacists Turn to Social Media for Lobbying

Most people think of social media as a marketing tool, but it can be useful to achieve all sorts of objectives, including lobbying.

The Ontario’s Community Pharmacies have leveraged several social media tactics for lobbying purposes, and they are focusing on mainstream sites.

If you live in Ontario and have visited your FaceBook profile during the months of April and May, there are good chances that you would have noticed an ad stating that ‘Your Pharmacy is at Risk‘.  In fact, during this period, I noticed at least 15 different versions of this ad.  The copy was always the same, but the image was different.  See all the ads that appeared on my personal FaceBook profile and ad board below;

On May 17, I noticed a similar ad, but with a more dramatic header: “Danger for Local Pharmacy”.   I only saw this ad once and it seemed to have disappeared thereafter, having been replaced by the ads with the original header.  I only saw this particular ad once, as the ads appeared to have quickly reverted back to the original header.  In fact, all of the ads seemed to have disappeared completely sometime during the week of May 17th.

When you clicked on the ads, they linked to StopCuts.ca, a website by Ontario’s Community Pharmacies (which, by the way, contains a lot of similar content as what appears on the official Ontario’s Community Pharmacies website).  The website, and associated social media tactics (RSS, FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, and several methods to contact the government), were initiated as a strategy to counteract the threat of governmental cuts to community health care.  This post is not meant to promote nor discredit the strategic objectives of the lobbying campaign, but rather to look at the social media components that make up the campaign.

Ontario’s Community Pharmacies has a rather popular FaceBook page, with 14,892 fans (`likes`) as of May 25 2010.  The FaceBook page seems to be rallying a lot of support from pharmacists and consumers ready to lobby the government.  The wall of the page is loaded with comments from supporters providing each other with tips and resources to assist with the lobbying activities and events.

The group also has a Twitter account with the username “ONPharmacies”,  which has 325 followers and is listed 8 times as of May 25 2010.  The discussion and chatter is constant and abundant on the FaceBook page, but it seems to be non-existent on the Twitter account.  There is a hashtag for #stopcutsdotca, but when you look at the real-time usage of this hashtag, it seems to be almost solely used by the ONPharmacies account.  This could be because Canadians, in general, have lagged in the adoption of Twitter.

And finally, there is a YouTube channel which boasts 31,346 views of all their videos since the channel was created on January 10 2010.  According to a quick calculation, there have been approximately an average of 265 views of the Ontario Community Pharmacists’ videos on a daily basis (but I’m sure there were peak periods when large lobbying activities were taking place, and lull periods in between).

To find out if Ontario’s Community Pharmacies had any blogger outreach as part of this campaign, I searched IceRocket.com’s blog section to see if there were any blogs that either mentionned the organization’s name, or linked to the StopCuts.ca website.   This search demonstrated that during the months of April and May, 9 blogs had covered a story that either included the organization’s name or linked to their website.  The low number of blogs that included an article about the organization, as well as the fact that the blog posts ranged within a 2-month period, suggests that there was no active blog outreach as part of this campaign. This may have been a supportive tactic, but I think the group’s outreach has been very effective on FaceBook and YouTube, therefore they are probably better off to continue focusing on these two venues.

The one question that I am left with is whether most followers and fans of the Ontario’s Community Pharmacies’ groups are pharmacists and their employees, or whether there is a large consumer group rallying behind the Ontario’s Community Pharmacies in support of their cause. Based on the type of comments written on the FaceBook wall, my guess is that it is the former (but this group may just have been the most vocal). Either way, it is amazing to see a bunch of people who feel very passionately about a topic gather and communicate together in an open online forum.

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

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