RUCONEST (C1 esterase inhibitor [recombinant]) Account Takeovers
Snow Companies and Pharming
Paul Wilcox, Marketing Director, Pharming
P.Wilcox@pharming.com
Caitlin Wagner, Associate Marketing Director, Pharming
C.Wagner@pharming.com
In 2021, Pharming partnered with Snow Companies to transform RUCONEST’s social media channels. They launched four patient “account takeovers,” of Pharming’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. During the campaign, four hereditary angioedema (HAE) patients (all on RUCONEST) each published separate weekday posts about their patient journeys.
While testimonials are common, account takeovers are quite unusual in biopharma marketing.
The RUCONEST account takeovers provided important patient perspectives, resources, information, and inspiration. The stories also increased the sense of ownership, empowerment, and the ability to build relationships between patients and the brand. The account takeovers would not have been possible a few years ago. The brand team had to take an iterative approach, which began by launching on YouTube in 2018, followed by Facebook and Instagram in 2019. As a subsequent step in early 2021, the team enabled comments with moderation on all channels. This helped the team expand reach and engage more with existing and potential patients. The steady approach has yielded positive results.
The team achieved its first objective, stakeholder (RUCONEST patient) buy-in, by demonstrating effectiveness of the digital pioneer work the company had already done. Second, all parties collaborated to create the regulatory-compliant content that referenced the product’s safety and guided users to the prescribing information. Lastly, they developed a process to carefully monitor and moderate online discussions.
The results exceeded expectations: The social channels recorded their largest increase in engagement during the weeks of the account takeovers. The team is excited to do more of the patient account takeovers in 2022!
