Introduction of the Brand/Company
MSD Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck Sharp & Dohme (known as Merck & Co., Inc. in the United States and Canada), is a premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company. The company focuses on scientific innovation to deliver medicines and vaccines that may help millions of people around the world. It follows the science to tackle some of the world’s greatest health threats.
Brand Category Introduction
MSD Pharmaceuticals has launched its integrated campaign on Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Consumer awareness called #HPVsearchkiyakya. The campaign’s aim is to educate the youth of India on HPV and HPV-related diseases and features popular youth icon, Sara Ali Khan.
The campaign aims to highlight the seriousness of HPV-related diseases in India including the fact that nearly 50-80% of sexually active women can be infected by HPV at least once in their lifetime. Genital warts followed by cervical cancer, head and neck cancer, vaginal cancer, anal cancer, and vulvar cancer are amongst the top 6 HPV-related diseases as understood by gynecologists in India.
Campaign summary
The disease awareness communication campaign is launched with a focus on educating and sensitising young adult females about the consequences associated with HPV infections. It also gives audiences an opportunity to connect with a network of healthcare professionals to seek specific guidance on HPV.
Objective of the campaign
MSD wanted to create awareness around HPV and how it is preventable with a vaccine if taken at the right time and hence catering to the GEN-Z audience was the key.
The importance of the campaign stems from the fact that cervical cancer is the second most common cancer found in women & this vaccine is the only preventable vaccine for this cancer type. Every 9 minutes 1 woman loses her battle to cervical cancer in India.
Campaign Ideas
This digital-first HPV awareness initiative is pivoted on knowmorehpv.com, and is being amplified through social media channels. It will also be extended on popular social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogchatter, Spotify, Snapchat and Hotstar.
Knowmorehpv.com empowers Young Adult Females with easy-to-understand knowledge around HPV, its prevention and offers one of the first in industry self-opted HPV expert counselling service for free.
Launching this campaign is a crucial step towards advancing the mission of building a healthy young India by reducing the disease burden of HPV-related cancers and disease in the country. Our goal is to increase public awareness with this campaign.
Campaign Strategy and factors behind the strategy formation.
MSD wanted to create awareness around HPV and how it is preventable with a vaccine if taken at the right time and hence catering to the GEN-Z audience was the key. The online behaviour and content consumption patterns of this TG is non linear, however when it comes to seeking information ‘Search’ is one thing that they prefer the most.
Our approach was to change consumer behavior & generate intent for HPV Vaccination. We were excited to rope in Sara Ali Khan, who agreed to be a part of this initiative. She is a strong advocate of preventive healthcare and leads by example.
Campaign Execution & Marketing Mix
According to an internal survey, 75% of our target audience have no idea about HPV! Lack of awareness is clearly the biggest challenge at hand. This digital first HPV awareness initiative is pivoted on www.knowmorehpv.com and will be further amplified through search ads, banner ads, audio ads, influencers amplification and social media.
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According to Google, search interest in online doctor consultation rose by 80% as consumers look for online options for healthcare. In India, search interest in wellness grew by 27%, and this includes mental wellness, emotional wellness, and physical wellness.
Combining the internet behaviour, the FOMO cult of our TG of the and the growth of search interest within the category we decided to come up with an integrated strategy to drive awareness around HPV by probing them with the question – #HPVSearchKiyaKya? Cashing in on this insight, our campaign uses smart messaging and right placements to ask the audience, Search Kiya Kya?
Campaign Results
The digital campaign has resonated with viewers online and attracted over 3.7MN+
across social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Business Impact
The digital campaign has created positive outcomes wherein the searches around HPV have gone up significantly on Google, since the launch of the campaign. Post the launch of the campaign, there was a 100%+ increase in searches about HPV, 140%+ increase in searches about HPV vaccines, 300%+ increase in searches around HPV vaccine costs and locations.
The sentiments that aroused from the campaign
The campaign resulted in heightened sense of awareness about HPV and how it can be prevented by the vaccine especially among the youth and led them to search and understand details about it. It also encouraged them to take the quiz about the disease and also led them to talk to an expert about its prevention.
Quote Managing Director
Rehan A. Khan, Managing Director, MSD India Regionsays, “Launching this campaign is a crucial step towards advancing the mission of building a healthy young India by reducing the disease burden of HPV-related cancers and disease in the country. Our goal is to increase public awareness with this campaign. We are excited that Sara Ali Khan agreed to be a part of this initiative. She is a strong advocate of preventive healthcare and leads by example.”
“We’re thrilled to bring MSD’s first consumer-focused digital initiative to life. Crafting its complete 360-degree digital strategy has been a fruitful journey. The aim was to amplify the awareness of HPV manifold by appealing to each persona differently. We got Sara Ali khan, as she is a youth icon & getting her onboard helped us effectively spread the message across to our target audience” Hetal Khalsa, CCO and Co- Founder, PivotRoots.
About Agency
Pivotroots is a growing independent agency across 4 cities in India and UAE, providing end-to-end digital solutions with consultation on integrated planning. A transformational agency, powered by data and tech fuelled creativity.
Team Members:
Kapil Unnikrishnan Nair : VP – Social & Strategy
Rishabh Shrivastav – VP – Communications
Satish Mirashi – Creative Director – Art
Sylvester Susainathan – Art Director
Tushar Naik – Associate Creative Director
Enoch Aiman: Copy Supervisor
Sanat Pandit : Copy Supervisor
Nihar Jain – Copy Executive
Aditi Agarwal : Social Media Manager
Apantava Jain : Account Executive
Priyanka Singhvi – Group Head Media
Rishil Sanghvi – Asst. Manager Paid Media
Ali Hashmi – Experiential Designer
Bhushan Munpelli- Manager – Experiential Animator
