One of the key components for “Crucial Rehearsal,” an unbranded DTC campaign to raise awareness of treatment options for prostate cancer, was a tool on www.crucialrehearsal.ca that allowed patients to create a customized script that helped them discuss their concerns and treatment with their doctor.
Cause and effect – whether it’s in the medicine you’re prescribed or the marketing that informs you about it, linking actions to results is critical. That’s why No Fixed Address (NFA) Health is obsessed with “creative insights.”
“Yesterday, we spent two hours speaking with patients with prostate cancer,” says David Brown, the agency’s EVP of strategy. “We got to listen to these men discuss how they relate their condition to their community, whether it’s their family or friends. We got to hear stories of how they’ve interacted with HCPs. It’s those nuances that matter the most. We build those into our briefs.”
It’s in those stories, says Brown, where you find the humanity behind the clinical condition and uncover the problem we are solving for them through our creative and that pull through into marketing initiatives. For NFA, the patient will always be the most important person at the table.
For Vertex Pharma Canada, the agency turned to Instagram to create conversations with #cfpossibilities – a destination that offers “fresh content, life hacks & real-talk support to help you chart your path to living your best life with cystic fibrosis.”
“They’re at the centre of every solution,” explains Joy Panday, the agency’s ECD, “because that relationship is key to feeling comfortable with their treatment. The creative has to be relevant, but it has to be empathetic to their situation and speak to them in a way that not only empowers them, but also disrupts them and gets them asking questions. “It’s the only way to move patient behaviour.”
In the last year, the team has expanded to 40 full-time staff with senior leadership that includes Joy Panday as ECD; David Brown, EVP of healthcare strategy and Erwin Tumangday, EVP of growth.
With head offices in Toronto and New York, and employees based in Chicago, San Francisco, New Jersey, Atlanta, Boston and Montreal, No Fixed Address Health offers end-to-end insight, strategy, creative and digital capabilities. In addition, the agency’s in-house Medical and Regulatory team is adept in internal compliance as well as FDA, Health Canada, PAAB and ASC regulations.
And what’s their philosophy? NFA Health president Dorothy Czylyski says it comes down to NFA’s creative insight framework. Their fuel is data and a deep understanding of the experience of patients, health care providers and the market. It’s about finding solutions that draw a direct line between insight, strategy, creative and performance.
Czylyski says the NFA approach resonates best with brands that have a challenger mindset and want to shake up the status quo.
Consider the recent “Crucial Rehearsal” unbranded DTC campaign for prostate cancer treatment. For it, the team created a website that encourages men with prostate cancer to speak up about their treatment options by using a simple online tool to create a personalized script for talking to their doctor. With more than 50,000 visits – representing an 80% reach of affected men in Canada and an 87% survey completion rate.
In another unbranded DTC campaign, this time for an overactive bladder treatment called “Stalking Toilet,” the team was inspired by the emotional insights of patients to create a social video campaign featuring toilets that cause terror by lurking in the background. It drove to a quiz that informed consumers about the problem – and a solution. The campaign generated over 4 million video views, 5 million social impressions, an 88% click-through rate on social and an 80% test completion rate.
Or maybe the solution looks like the unique Instagram initiative created (#cfpossibilities) for Vertex Pharma Canada, creating conversations about what independent living looks like for patients with cystic fibrosis.
“In all three cases,” sums Panday, “those are very brave clients. They understand that in order to reach our audiences, we can’t talk at them – we have to talk to them.” It’s an approach that resonates with brands like Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, Astellas, Eli Lilly, LEO Pharma, and NovoNordisk.
NFA used humour as the hook for its unbranded DTC campaign about OAB. Dubbed “Stalking Toilet,” the effort represented a sufferer’s sudden urge to pee as a toilet that appears unannounced throughout the day. The campaign encouraged consumers to engage in a quiz asking about OAB symptoms and realized an 80% survey completion rate and grew the brand by 19% YOY.
For us it’s all about creating meaningful experiences around healthcare decision making for the HCP, the patient, and the consumer. When we uncover and dissect a particular journey, every point of connection matters and can have an impact, says Czylyski. So, whether it’s creating a script for patients or getting them to fill out a quiz, Czylyski says the goal is to drive action.
“The creative insight approach we’ve refined allows us to deliver better, stronger work that delivers ROI for the client,” she says. “And that’s why they come to us. We’ve become experts in being able to navigate the regulatory landscape and create something truly impactful.”
NFA Health’s success in the Canadian market is garnering interest from pharma brands looking for bigger and bolder creative ideas that will deliver brand growth as a result of impacting true behavior change.”
CONTACT:
Dorothy Czylyski
Partner, president
dorothy.czylyski@nfahealth.com
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