3 Pharmaceutical Brands That Leveraged Twitter to Boost Their Brand Awareness

The pharmaceutical industry was worth $1.27 trillion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8% to reach $1.7 trillion by 2025. The onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a rush among major players of the industry to get their brands out in front of their target audience.

Therefore, pharma companies need to come up with solid marketing campaigns to survive and thrive in this competitive landscape. With marketing platforms like Twitter giving brands the perfect medium to drive brand awareness, companies can engage their target audience with ease just like these three pharmaceutical brands.

1. CVS Pharmacy

CVS Pharmacy dispenses millions of prescriptions per year and provides important health care services.

Their Objective

CVS wanted to communicate that it was a trusted partner for taking the guesswork out of affording prescriptions and it could help customers maintain their overall health.

Approach & Solution

Twitter’s portfolio of premium video content around health and wellness from top-tier publishing partners made it an ideal choice for CVS Pharmacy to launch its campaign.

CVS extended its O&O campaign to further align it with WebMD, an online publisher of news and information pertaining to human health and well-being. Through Twitter’s premium video sponsorship offering, CVS’s brand pre-roll played ahead of videos that were relevant to topics CVS consumers care about and complemented their campaign objectives.

WebMD created a year-long content strategy that hits on different themes depending on the time of year, ranging from spring allergies to mental health awareness and the flu. This posed an opportunity for brands like CVS to align their own seasonal brand priorities with the content that people seek out during those seasons.

And doing it with a trusted publishing partner like WebMD ensured brand safety for CVS.

The Result

CVS Pharmacy’s Twitter campaign was a massive success as its alignment to WebMD’s premium video content fetched a 1.5X higher view rate than Twitter’s pre-roll benchmark, thereby, resulting in 30 million pre-roll views in just three months. Also, CVS’s sponsorship of WebMD content was 1.5X more effective.

2. Mucinex

Mucinex is one of America’s top cold and flu brands.

Their Objective

Mucinex sought to capitalize on the excitement around Super Bowl 52 (SB52) and keep its message top-of-mind among the SB52 audience.

Approach & Solution

Mucinex commissioned a study that revealed that more people call out “sick” from work the day after the big game than any other day of the year. Even before SB52 had happened, major news outlets like NBC were talking about Mucinex’s study.

To capitalize on this momentum, Mucinex aired a commercial at the end of the game, coining the hashtag #SuperSickMonday with the message “Enjoy your ‘sick day’ America. When you’re really sick, take Mucinex.”

Mucinex kept the conversation going on Twitter until the next morning, and employed a paid campaign to get some of the biggest influencers on Twitter to talk about what #SuperSickMonday meant to them.

It also rolled out new digital content to spread its message far and wide and used Twitter Polls to ask people how they were preparing for their day off. Moreover, it leveraged Conversation Cards as an “excuse generator” to keep the conversation relevant and engaging.

The Result

The Twitter campaign helped Mucinex earn 53.7M impressions and 11.9M unique reach on Twitter. Also, its brand metrics saw a significant lift with +14pt “brand for me,” +13pt “brand I love,” +12pt purchase intent, and +4pt unaided awareness.

3. Excedrin

Excedrin has been a leader in headache pain relief for more than 50 years, with a range of safe, effective, over-the-counter pain relievers.

Their Objective

Excedrin wanted to position itself as a headache-relieving product during the 2016 US presidential elections.

Approach & Solution

Excedrin had done research that showed how most people thought that avoiding headaches during the election was impossible. By using humor, cartoon graphics, and deft copywriting to associate its product with the event in an unusual way, Excedrin created a Promoted Trend campaign that focused on one thing common across all political beliefs: political debates can give you a headache.

So, Excedrin launched the #DebateHeadache campaign early on the day of the election debate to exploit the news cycle of coverage for the best effect. By launching before the debate, it built brand awareness on the wave of speculation and discussion that preceded the event.

Excedrin used a light, humorous approach to the serious business of the debate, and appealed to both sides of the political fence without getting too close to the debate itself.

The Result

The #DebateHeadache campaign was an unqualified success for Excedrin and generated 7.86M tweet impressions and 79.3k mentions of the #DebateHeadache campaign. Also, it led to 372x normal account follows.

Bottom Line

Twitter in many ways is the perfect marketing platform since it costs nothing to have a presence on Twitter, promote your brand organically, and share related content with your target audience. With over 321 million active monthly users, it’s easy to understand why companies want to engage their audience on Twitter. However, if you wish to truly capitalize on its potential, it’s no longer enough to merely send out Tweets on the latest trending topics.

Like every other social media platform, finding marketing success on Twitter heavily depends upon your strategic planning and intention to stand out and keep your audience engaged.