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Why shouldn’t my campaign show a smiling patient?
Recently, a member of the extended client marketing team asked the question, “Where’s my happy patient visual?”
This is not a bad question to ask—or maybe it is, if you read your agency’s blog or have visited their website. The real answer is that if you want your brand to look like 83% of communications being created for the healthcare industry, then yes, by all means, use a visual with a smiling, happy patient on it.
The concept of product differentiation is not new.
In fact, it was first proposed by the American economist Edward Chamberlin in 1933. He was on to something critical to product success over 75 years ago: the notion that one product can be distinguished from another in the mind of the target audience. In addition, if the product differentiation is strong enough, a premium price can be charged. Brilliant.
But here we are in 2011, with countless advertising campaigns in the healthcare space that look homogeneous. Swap out logos and messaging, and the visuals can be transferred from drug to drug, easily.
For an interesting exercise in evaluating what best-in-class looks like, turn to the various creative award shows to see what wins. What are the most celebrated creative executions doing to differentiate themselves?
Let’s start with the most stringent awards competition: The CLIO Healthcare Awards. Judging for this show is rigorous. Sometimes the judges do not select a winner at all, if they feel no submissions merit a prize. That being said, here are the 2010 winners. You will notice there’s not a happy, smiling patient in the bunch.
Actually, the patients in these ads appear rather uncomfortable. See the Kalbitor campaign. Dramatic. Impactful. Differentiating.
Or, we can look at ads from the Rx Club, a show that has far-reaching entries, a 25-year history, and a more global feel. Among the 2010 Rx Club winners is also an absence of happy, smiling patients.
In fact, the World No Tobacco Day campaign uses beautiful patient imagery and flips it dramatically. Safe? No. Effective? Yes. Differentiated? Certainly.
Or, how about the Pharma Choice awards? This online competition has product managers serve as judges to select the most memorable pieces in print and digital formats.
Take a look at one of the winners.
OK, I get it, you say. But what about the woman serenely powerwalking in the Recothrom ad? Point taken, except that she has a COW ON HER BACK.
Terrific execution, with a stunning visual that breaks the books. Well done.
Is there a correlation between award-winning creative and differentiation? You bet there is. Because it forces your target audience to take notice.
Choosing patient imagery to represent your brand is not wrong―it merely falls short of effectively differentiating your brand. If you have 100% awareness, go for it. If you are a challenger brand with limited budgets, try a different tack. Use visual differentiation to separate yourself and your brand from the sea of sameness.
I couldn’t agree more, although we need to be careful when scanning the pieces of some award shows. Lots of the winning entries from award shows are produced outside of the US far from the watchful eye of DDMAC. While the visuals that win are stunning, some can also be over promising and making a claim that in the US you would never be able to get through. Either way bold work that is differentiated and breaks through the clutter is the smart way to go when building a brand.
The reason you see so many smiling patients in pharma ads is because they are “safe.” It’s much easier for a brand manager to sell the ad to their executive management team when they can show the positive benefit of taking the medicine. But what they really should be selling is the ROI of the campaign. And nothing can jump start a strong ROI better than a visually arresting, relevant image!
Excellent points Frank. Ed Chamberlain and I went thru prep school, and…just kidding, I got kicked out of prep school and he’s even older then I am. But his theory spawned an industry, and guys like Ogilvy and especially Bernbach came later to refine the idea of brand differentiation to, dare I say, an art form.
That chimp looks familiar. Was he in a GSW ad a while back?
Rather than just discuss key themes, it’s helpful to see images from recent award shows to have good examples of arresting imagery that doesn’t use patients. This article provides good food for thought for brand teams.
The smiling patient in the quality of life shot just blends in with the crowd. I agree that having these examples of award winning art is very helpful.
It takes courage to step outside the norm and do something different. I love the examples you provided. Gutsy stuff.
If a patient sees the smiley, happy patient in the ad, they may not even connect with the ad. In today’s world, brands need to differentiate themselves and using the same old imagery won’t do it!
At the same time that you don’t want to just show a smiling patient, it is also proven that scare tactics are ineffective.
If we are going to show smiling we will shoot it like it has never been shown before!! But really even working on rare disease patient materials sometimes even a smile is an over promise..