We targeted males 50+ with very high triglycerides and are often nagged about their health by their wives and adult children with the best intentions.

The biggest restriction we faced was complying with US government (FDA) regulations and practices for pharmaceutical communications regarding an unbranded disease education campaign. With these regulations in mind, we wanted to break through in an effective way – socially. Our campaign launched digitally, across YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest and an original website – Takeitfromafish.com. And the campaign remained compliant on Twitter even as we communicated in real-time.

“Very high triglycerides” is a serious condition which can lead to heart disease. Unfortunately, most people who have it don’t know – they don’t feel sick.

AstraZeneca is in the process of developing a new medication to help, but this lack of knowledge and inertia made it essential to engage the target - a typically unhealthy man in his 50’s – about treatment well in advance.

We created an integrated online and social campaign designed to entertain and educate. Takeitfromafish.com introduced Marty and Sal, two “spokesfish” to the target — and his wife and adult children — through entertaining original videos and content to be shared socially.

The campaign was activated via Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest, generating some of the highest engagement in the pharma category. YouTube video completions increased 100% over pharma benchmarks, and the work is one of the top 5 performing Twitter campaigns ever in the category.

The objectives: to increase awareness within our target consumer in the US about very high triglycerides and educate with health tips to help them change unhealthy behaviors.

We targeted males 50+ with very high triglycerides and are often nagged about their health by their wives and adult children with the best intentions. We segmented these audiences based on their digital platforms of choice, to make sure we reached the right people with the right message.

Success was measured by the increase in the number of people seeking out triglyceride information online, as well as video views, shares and social engagement.

We started 15 April 2014 by launching takeitfromafish.com loaded with health, exercise tips, diet advice and “spokesfish” videos on YouTube.

YouTube in-stream advertising and the site added videos from July through October meant to entertain and educate the target about the effects of diet and exercise to help lower triglycerides.

In July, paid search and Twitter also entered the mix. The @fromafish Twitter handle gave Marty and Sal social voice and presence. And, uniquely for a pharma campaign, @fromafish tweeted in real-time, commenting on current topics and events. In doing so, we engaged with other big brands and leveraging their follower reach for more awareness.

From August, we ran banner advertising on WebMD, Turner sports and Field & Stream to reach the target, plus original pins and repins on Pinterest engaged with the target’s loved ones – a community dedicated to finding healthy recipes and diet tips.

Awareness:

• After only 3 months, achieved 11% category lift on searches for high triglycerides and then sustained this consistently until the end of campaign.

• On Twitter, we were able to gain significant followers with average month-on-month growth of 288%.

• The Twitter campaign achieved the 4th highest total follower counts ever in pharma.

Action:

• Search CTR was 92% higher than pharma benchmark.

• Used Twitter Lead Gen cards (unbranded pharma first) to earn leads 5% more efficiently.

• On YouTube, average view completion rate was 100% higher than pharma benchmark. 20% of views were organic (vs 5% average), reducing reliance on paid media.

• Banner Ads earned 3x the display banner CTR benchmark and 4.5x Google Display Network benchmark

With a target tired of being nagged for being unhealthy, our strategy was Edu-tainment.

We found our target enjoyed fishing, so we positioned 2 fish as plain-spoken triglyceride representatives in online videos, using humor to share diet and exercise information.

Who can get mad at a fish?

Connecting with spouses and adult children who are trying to support was crucial to making an impact, so an integrated online campaign was key to finding them cost effectively. Through targeted online media and strategic use of social platforms, we surrounded our target and their loved ones with entertaining messages.

Triglycerides are the forgotten fat. Unlike Cholesterol (another fatty substance found in the blood), Triglycerides are not well known by the general population.

"Very high levels of triglycerides – a condition called hypertriglyceridemia – can cause serious ailments like acute pancreatitis and contribute to cardiovascular disease. People suffering from very high triglycerides (about 4M Americans) don’t feel sick when their levels are dangerously high or better when their levels are normal.

We needed to get these 4 million people to sit up and pay attention not only to our messaging, but to their own health as well.