PM360 Great Creative 2010

The Philosophy of Great Creative
POSTCARDS FROM SWITZERLAND
By Ross Thomson, former EVP, Chief Ideation Officer, Vox Medica

If you’ve ever watched the movie The Great Escape, you’ve almost certainly whistled Elmer Bernstein’s zesty theme tune with unashamed gusto. Based on a true story, the film tells how a group of allied POWs, imprisoned in an “escape-proof” camp, plan and execute one of the most audacious breakouts of World War II. Superbly acted and lovingly portrayed, The Great Escape is a heroic tale of derring-do, a pure cinematic classic that defines the whole escape movie genre. Even today, The Great Escape invokes the kind of national pride that, as a Brit, makes me want to wax my mustache and infuse the Earl Grey. As your own Randy Jackson would say, “Give it up for the Allies, dawg.” Well, they got my vote—that tunnel was months in the making. They carved that sucker out of solid Bavaria with nothing more than a rusty spoon and some stiff upper lip. Under the razor wire it goes, past the arcing searchlights, the rabid pooches, and the trigger-happy goons. And before you can say “schnell, schnell,” 200 of our blokes are running full pelt for the Swiss border. And it’s not for the cheese.

Of course, as with many escape genre films, it’s the postcard that eventually arrives back in camp from the hallowed neutrality of Switzerland that evokes a heartfelt cheer—it represents a victory against all odds—a sign to the demoralized captive troops that there is still hope. There is always hope. I kinda see great pharma ads that way, as postcards from Switzerland. For me, the postcard from Switzerland is an iconic symbol of creative ingenuity. It epitomizes painstaking groundwork, methodical planning, and incisive strategy, and intonates an innate understanding of the enemy, the competition. It’s the adrenaline rush of outmaneuvering and outwitting those who are out to do the same to you. Quite simply, the postcard is the embodiment of what it takes to win. At the time the real Great Escape was enacted, the world was struggling with radical change and hugely convergent forces. At the time of writing this article, our own world of health care marketing is facing similar challenges. So, what can be done to ensure that our best thinking is ultimately liberating? And what problems and pitfalls do we face along the way? Here’s my stab at a five-point plan to help our heroic endeavors make it across the creative border.

1. DIG DEEP
Extend your knowledge base. Digest the MOAs, metabolic pathways, drug-drug interactions, and the whole pharmacopoeia of medicinal information. Interrogate the product until it confesses its strengths. And intimately know the competitive landscape and/or any legal implications and restrictions that might derail your strategy farther down
the line.

2. THE BRIEFING
Groundwork, planning, strategy, insights—even your competitor’s strategy—are compiled and distilled into the all-important creative brief. Crucial to the plan is that all stakeholders—account management, creative, planning, medical, and client—sign off on the brief. Within this document should be the means to defeat the enemy: a powerful, single-minded, differentiating marketing claim.

3. RULES OF THE ROAD
Apply a simple tangible creative criterion from which everyone top-to-bottom can easily judge the concepts and form a consensus. Are your concepts built on sound strategic thinking? Are they original? Do they differentiate themselves within your brand’s competitive space? Are they well-branded and born out of customer insights? Are they quick to assimilate and ultimately campaignable? With such a rich, diverse range of media literally at our fingertips, a criterion of any 21st century concept is that it’s media neutral.

4. KEEP ON TRACK
Shape the research process. Gear the focus group questions to generate the best insight based on the creative brief. Bring creatives to the session—sitting right behind the glass provides an invaluable opportunity to see the nuances of the physicians’ reactions to the creative concepts. Present the concepts simply. A hand-drawn layout gives an opportunity to truly research an idea, as opposed to an overused stock shot that “isn’t quite right.” Eliminate the focus group pros and weed out the research circuit doctors who use these groups as a steady source of income. And avoid the “PC” response—work with the moderator to craft the discussion and eliminate the textbook answers.

5. BEWARE THE WATCHDOGS
Even if the favored concept succeeds, there’s no guarantee that it will even run. Why? Because the increasingly vigilant DDMAC, FDA, and other regulatory guards will be scouring your materials, ensuring all claims are compliant with responsible marketing practices. This is where all the meticulous planning and creative ingenuity could fall face down into the proverbial mud. The most commonly cited violation in 2009 was the omission of safety/risk information. A quick glance at the FDA Web site will tell you that 2010 is no different.

Archie “The Mole” Ives: a cautionary tale.
Whereas 10 years ago there were around 20 biotechs, today there are thousands. No longer can you market a drug confident in the knowledge its novel MOA will guarantee success. It’s a fierce, competitive marketplace where every manufacturer knows a powerful, singleminded, differentiating claim is crucial to survival. Push the claim, make it sexy or feel bigger than it is, and it will almost certainly be judged untenable by a higher authority. In 2010 the “same old, same old” methods simply won’t pass muster. In The Great Escape, Archie “The Mole” Ives was the wily Scotsman whose countless opportunistic endeavors at escape unsurprisingly came to naught. Inevitably, poor Archie cracks and, in front of all those assembled, makes a desperate attempt to scale the perimeter fence. Sadly, such an obvious ploy is all too easy for Willy in the watchtower. In pharmaceutical advertising, where the governing bodies are fast losing patience with claims that Product Y is faster, or wipes out, or annihilates and defeats, we need to think smarter—after months of preparing a product for launch, do you really want to end up with an approvable letter that forces you to run with “new” for six months? Of course, all this doesn’t mean the creative idea is to be forever beaten down and sentenced to a life in the cooler. Quite the contrary, if we throw out the tired, cliched, so-called “solutions” and instead embrace the FDA-mandated laws, we can use our ingenuity to better effect. Every creative knows it’s his or her moral duty. The work displayed in the following pages “made it.”

They are the product of those folks who refuse to lie down and be beaten—those who continuously strive to come up with inventive solutions. To all of you I proudly raise my hand in salute. Cue the theme tune.

How Vox “Nailed” A Cephalon Campaign
Vox worked with Cephalon Inc. to heighten the visibility of Pain Awareness Month. We developed a print salute to generate attention for third-party group efforts around cancer-related breakthrough pain. The imagery depicted in the ad conveyed a literal illustration of “breakthrough” via the nail through the board while at the same time addressing the reality of many patients’ pain. It was a jarring image that caught the reader’s attention immediately and drew them in. The advertorial ran on September 25, 2009, on the second page of “USA Today,” reaching approximately 6.2 million people.

Spotlight on Strong Support Network
To address the insufficient visibility of the rare disorders of Guillán-Barré Syndrome and Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy, Vox selected an eye-catching poster brochure format that heightened awareness. The main image and headline were carefully selected to communicate the sheer magnitude and strength of the support network at hand. All copy was written with a strong emphasis on hope and the organization’s personal experience. The poster-brochure concept was very well received by the Foundation. It is the basis for their current capital campaign, where it is anticipated to improve the overall open and response rate.