One of the biggest challenges that came about as a result of the pandemic was figuring out new ways to reach healthcare professionals (HCPs) who had limited to no contact with their field reps. The CMI Media Group team needed to find a creative way to promote the groundbreaking approval of a new indication for TAGRISSO to oncology HCPs. TAGRISSO is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that have certain abnormal epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene(s). Given the current climate and the fact that this in-demand audience of HCPs is bombarded with new reports and clinical trial results daily, it was crucial that the team broke through the noise and connected with them in the most valuable way. The CMI Media Group team began their search for the best platform to reach their target in a professional yet personal environment and landed on LinkedIn for a number of reasons. One example is that LinkedIn members come to the platform with a 92% more purposeful mindset compared to other social media platforms, which makes them more receptive to advertising. LinkedIn Members also have 50% more trust in ads on LinkedIn compared to ads on other social media platforms.
Once the CMI Media Group team decided on a platform, it was time to figure out what type of campaign they would run. AstraZeneca’s TAGRISSO decided to leverage reminder-style messaging within LinkedIn’s branded Sponsored Messages pilot. This is something that a pharma brand has never done.
The team knew that targeting specifically to LinkedIn members with the word “oncology” in their title could limit their reach, therefore they took a more creative targeting approach and included both core and broader, related titles, ranging from hematologist to cardiothoracic surgeon.
Additionally, the creative that was shared with these individuals was concise, informative and focused on the new indication announcement rather than including too many details of the indication itself. Given the success of this messaging approach on other platforms, CMI Media Group recommended taking this approach on LinkedIn. The ad was intended to grab the audience’s attention with the announcement and a call to action was included where HCPs could learn more about the results of the clinical trial and how these results may impact their patients. Limiting the messaging to just the announcement removed the need for lengthy important safety information, making the ad more visually appealing, while supporting the goal of driving HCPs to the website for more details on the approval.
The overwhelming success of this campaign led TAGRISSO to continue utilizing LinkedIn to target HCPs in new fashions with the same goal driving them to the branded site. Due to the success of the platform and the opportunity to expand, the AstraZeneca brand leads, agencies and LinkedIn worked in a unified front to get approvals through Med Legal Review and LinkedIn’s policy team, leading to the launch of a branded LinkedIn Page, another first for pharma, on November 18th. This page was created as a vessel for advertising. The team was then selected by LinkedIn to take part in a beta program to run Sponsored Content ads in-feed on the platform, which made them the first pharma brand to deliver ads in this placement.
Sponsored content ads provided the ability to get the brand’s message in front of HCPs while they are browsing their feed, which is a key action on the site. This increases the agency's ability to inform the brand’s audience of the new indication launch.
LinkedIn’s high-quality audience (7.2M+ healthcare professionals), professional environment and the fact that the platform supports full regulatory compliance when conducting message campaigns made it the perfect place for branded prescription education for HCPs. The Sponsored Messages campaign results exceeded expectations, providing the highest click-through rate (CTR) the product has seen on any social media platform.
Additional Sponsored Messages results;
Open rates 2X higher than LinkedIn benchmarks (50+% compared to 25%)
Click through rates 7X higher than LinkedIn benchmarks (7% compared to 1%)
25% increase in users viewing all efficacy endpoint information on landing page compared to other platforms
84% increase in quality visit rate from LinkedIn compared to other social platforms
Sponsored Content results;
Click through rates 35% higher than LinkedIn’s healthcare benchmark (0.58% compared to 0.43%)
Engagement Rates 2x higher than LinkedIn’s healthcare benchmark (1.38% compared to 0.68%)
