The pharmaceutical industry’s successes and shortcomings have been depicted in a wide range of media, but how about rap? A social media strategist used a jazzy theme to discuss insights she has gleaned from working with pharmaceutical companies about the industry’s image problem with patients and ways to improve it.
Silja Jouquet’s Ode to Pharma was part of the PechaKulcha segment at the recent e-Patient Connections conference. Pecha Kulcha is a rapid fire presentation style involving 20 slides in six minutes that has its roots in Japan. Jouquet’s rap includes ideas for how to increase patient engagement and improve the perception of pharmaceutical companies with a couple of examples. She mentions Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) UK marketing campaign to encourage men to pose questions to healthcare professionals anonymously in an initiative sponsored by the NHS from 2010-2011. She also drew attention to Boehringer Ingelheim’s Facebook game called Syrum, a drug development role-playing exercise for Europe in which players don lab coats and set about eliminating the world’s deadliest diseases.
And anyone who can can find a way to rhyme endothelial nitric oxide enhancer deserves some credit.
Jouquet doesn’t claim to have any special tactics to overcome marketing limitations established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but simply encourages pharmaceutical companies to persevere on the communication front. Maybe they could hire a social media strategist, the rap seems to hint.
Jouquet, who is the founder of Basel, Switzerland-based Whydotpharma, has worked for companies like Novartis and Schering Plough, acquired by Merck in 2009.
[Video provided by PharmFreshTV]
