| GlaxoSmithKline Looks Beyond HIV Marketing |
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by Michael Wilke
Long in the gay market with ads just for its HIV drugs, GlaxoSmithKline has expanded its product marketing to over-the-counter cold sore treatment Abreva, and its prescription depression drug Wellbutrin XL.
"Nobody looks hot in a cold sore," notes the new print ad for Abreva, picturing a young, multiracial man with his chest revealed by his partially unbuttoned shirt. The effort from Grey Worldwide ad agency is an expansion of the campaign targeting women which began in 2000. GSK now also seeks "appearance-oriented men," both gay and straight, by running ads in LPI Media publications and on gay.com and planetout.com, and a version with a female is running in GQ, Cargo and Men's Fitness to hit the so-called metrosexual man.
"We've historically had a female target but in a 2005 brand planning meeting, we got into a discussion about why we weren't targeting men. Of course, stereotypes say that men aren't interested enough in their appearance. It occurred to us that some do," explains Mark Prus, marketing director for gastrointestinal and dermatological products at GSK.
Prus notes that GSK's previous experience in marketing HIV drugs, including Lexiva, Combivir, Epivir and Retrovir, has provided useful internal information about gay marketing for Abreva's effort. "They've obviously spent more time exploring advertising approaches to this market, that allowed us to advance our knowledge," he says.
Abreva's new ads have also been tested internally through the gay employee group at GSK. "We bounce approaches off them and others, we've gotten a lot of input from our employee teams," adds Mark Miller, senior brand manager on Abreva.
A new micro website, healitwithabreva.com, was created to support the new outreach to men. Both the new site and the original abreva.com include a feature called "Hot Tips from Tina" about cold sores, with monthly tips. Tina is a cartoon with character: "Moi again! Spring is in the air, and as you know, I am a major catwalk-gawker! So this month, I'll share some of my fave trends from the runways…" There are some actual tidbits about what's popular in fashion.
Wellbutrin XL Rides Into Gay Media
Like other large companies, GSK brands operate independently of each other, but prescription Wellbutrin XL is also newly introduced in the gay market. Its print ad features two men riding bicycles together through a field of flowers next to a dramatic, Brokeback Mountain-looking setting. The ad proclaims the product "works for my depression with a low risk of weight gain and sexual side effects."
"The idea is to show people upbeat and engaged with others," GSK spokeswoman Robin Gaitens says.
Citing 2000 research on "suicide symptoms and affective disorders" for men aged 17-39 from the American Journal of Public Health, Gaitens says that "some data shows that gay men are at risk for depression three times higher than straight men." Gaitens also mentions that 16% of all adults will experience Major Depressive Disorder in their lifetimes, or 14 million Americans annually.
The general target for Wellbutrin XL, with advertising from McCann Erickson Worldwide, is adults 25-54, yet there are no current plans to include lesbians in the creative or media plans. Gaitens points out the research available doesn't address gay women.
More Brands to Choose From
The company also markets another depression treatment, Paxil, along with many other familiar prescription and over-the-counter brands. Zantac and Tagamet ulcer remedies, smoking cessation products Nicorette, NicoDerm and Zyban, allergy spray Flonase, Serevent for asthma, migraine treatment Imitrex, Valtrex for genital herpes, heartburn relief with Tums, and dental hygiene brand Aquafresh.
Back in 1996, Glaxo Wellcome (before the 2000 SmithKline Beecham merger) did gay market education campaigns for HIV, while then-separate SmithKline Beecham created a dedicated gay market print ad for Hepatitis A vaccine Havrix with illustrations on a series of napkins. The first shows two men with hearts and the caption, "Boy meets boy." The second shows one turning yellow, and the final napkin panel concludes, "Oh boy, should've got Havrix."
A handful of other non-HIV drugs have entered the gay market over the years, including hair-loss remedy Propecia from Merck in 1998, and in 2003, Johnson & Johnson introduced Tylenol PM as the first over-the-counter drug to be advertised to the gay market. Last year, Tylenol PM's gay market ad featured a male couple in bed together with text below one man reading, "His backache is keeping him up," and below the other, his arms crossed, "His boyfriend's backache is keeping him up."
The opportunity for marketing other prescription and nonprescription drugs in the gay market remains wide open, particularly for mature categories seeking growth, and where research shows distinct needs of the gay and lesbian market. For example, gays are 40%-70% likelier to smoke than the average, according to a 2001 article in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.\n
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