OST Wins Pharmaceutical Marketing Award for Digital Campaign

We are delighted to announce that OST has won the Digital Marketing Award at the 2016 Veterinary Marketing Awards (VMAs).

As you may know, using social media to help promote pharmaceutical products is far from easy. There are products you simply cannot talk about in a public forum – even if the actual product is for animals – and the consequences of getting it wrong, or making unfounded claims, can be very serious. This is a highly regulated industry; for very good reasons, of course.

This is why we are especially pleased to win this award for our work with Zoetis, the world’s largest animal health company. We managed to walk the regulatory line and deliver excellent results at the same time.

So, what did we do?

OST developed an innovative social media and digital marketing campaign with the aim of informing UK farmers about the importance of early vaccination in beef calves and dairy heifers. If you aren’t aware, catching diseases early on can dramatically improve the lifetime health and productivity of the animal, which is better for them and for the farmer.

To maximise awareness of the campaign, OST launched a Twitter account and developed a range of images and infographics (see snippet below) to convey the core messages to a wide audience. Through a systematic programme of Twitter engagement and advertising, this content was amplified across the UK’s farming community, reaching hundreds of thousands of people.

Over a 4 month period, from October 2015 to January 2016, the Plan to Produce campaign delivered:

• 300% increase in website traffic
• Over 10,000 engagements with farmers on Twitter
• Engagement with scores of key industry influencers, such as Kate Humble (TV presenter, 5,100 followers), Jill Franklin (Red Tractor, 4,431 followers) and Fiona Graham (dairy farmer, 4,990 followers).

After this initial trial period, the programme has been expanded, with more channels and content being launched in 2016.

Adam Coomber of Zoetis, who worked closely with OST and development agency HPS Group, to deliver the campaign, said of the award:

“Our main outcomes were to connect with farmers, to understand how they are using social media and to deliver engaging and relevant content relating to a specific topic that would help them with the productivity of their herds. The support and insight that OST delivered enabled us to do this in the most up-to-date way and has given us the confidence to expand our online & social activity through 2016“.

Luke Brynley-Jones, Managing Director of OST said today:

“We are particularly pleased to win an award because, traditionally, pharmaceutical companies have struggled to deliver success through social media. The regulatory environment increases the challenge, but we’ve developed a set of techniques that enable us to over come these and develop game-changing campaigns”.

For more information about the VMA Awards, visit their website.