Health Care

Brief
Explaining the benefits of a pharmaceutical product requires effective communication with GPs – a notoriously difficult group to engage. In this instance, Boehringer Ingelheim needed a solution that would clearly identify their products’ benefits and motivate GPs to respond, so that the company could collect accurate data for future communications.

The challenge was to develop a clear and simple demonstration of the product benefit. The client wished to communicate to GPs that by prescribing the product for appropriate patients, they could help take that patient out of a medical ‘danger zone’, demonstrated creatively through the analogy of removing them from a set of train tracks.

Strategy
The company’s advertising agency Saatchi Healthcare, designed an innovative, easy-to-open new DM format. By activating the mailer and opening as instructed, the GP would physically ‘remove’ the patient from the dangerous situation. Penfold Buscombe was then able to take this design and develop it into a concept that could be machine assembled.

Solution
Penfold Buscombe recognised that creativity in both format and message could help to capture each GP’s attention. Developing a mechanical solution meant that the power of a fresh format could be produced more cost-effectively, with a drastically reduced turnaround time. (The job had already been quoted as a hand-assembled project, allowing the agency and client to see the full extent of the potential savings.) Penfold Buscombe then provided Saatchi Healthcare with an Illustrator file of the design template, ensuring trouble-free production of the final mailer. The personalisation was run inline with the folding and gluing process.

Key Achievements
On top of substantial time and cost savings, the final mail pack achieved an outstanding response rate of 23%. This far exceeded Boehringer Ingelheim’s expectations for this extremely challenging market.