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TalkIBS: Talking About a Taboo Topic

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a health condition that affects over 20% of American adults, yet few are aware of the condition, and even fewer are comfortable talking about it. Novartis Pharmaceuticals had just received FDA approval on their IBS Drug, Zelnorm, for the use treatment of IBS, But Novartis wanted to raise awareness of the condition before they began to promote Zelnorm specifically.

TalkIBS would serve as the campaign's destination website, promoted heavily by the offline PR efforts of Ruder Finn's Healthcare Practice.

 

 

OBJECTIVES

• Raise IBS awareness amongst U.S. and Spanish speaking audiences
• Create a non-branded educational campaign
• Create a call-to-action that would drive physician/patient dialogues about IBS
• Generate informational uptake

RESULTS

• TalkIBS received 297,000 unique visitors and 500,000 overall visits in the 30 weeks following launch .
• National awareness of IBS increased from 14% before the campaign, to 24% three months into the campaign.
• Zelnorm, the IBS drug, moved into first position for weekly comparison across different markets (134 other brands Marketing Mgmt tracks against Zelnorm sales), from early December, and its sales increased 4%.