GSK Teams With Drag Queen to Fight HIV

Prescription-drugs is not an industry known for marketing bravery which makes the solution for GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) HIV Brands, Epzicom/ Lexiva even more of a brave marketing move. Heavy US government regulation creates additional marketing challenges for drug manufacturers, which can in turn cause difficulties for a consumer trying to get a doctor’s prescription for a drug. The result is that consumers often passively default to what the doctor prescribes, without actually asking the doctor for a specific brand choice.
With HIV drugs, the marketing challenge becomes even more daunting. Despite many social and medical advances, HIV is still a disease shrouded in secrecy and occasionally, shame. Some people don’t feel comfortable revealing or discussing with anyone, including their doctors. As a result, HIV drug companies have taken a conservative, antiseptic approach to marketing. The net result of these factors left consumers feeling even more isolated.

When it came to marketing the HIV drugs Epzicom and Lexiva, GSK had to overcome the category’s antiseptic marketing approach and create deeper trust between Epzicom and Lexiva and the HIV patient. GSK realised that it needed to talk to consumers in a way that was honest and supportive that when they met their doctor, they had a specific HIV drug brand in mind.

1million people living in the US have HIV, but there are two very different targets that together make up almost half of the patient population. The first is gay white men (average age 45, approximately 20% of the target) and African American women (average age 46, approximately 24%).

Profound cultural differences impacted not only their view of the HIV virus, but also their receptiveness to HIV advertising, media choices and life outlook. Gay white males were more cynical, while the African American women tended to be more optimistic. Based on those consumer insights, as well as the marketing reality that Epzicom were Lexiva were simply drowned out by larger marketers with bigger budgets, GSK had to make a limited budget work across two disparate target groups.

GSK’s communication strategy consisted of two objectives. Primarily, it needed to overcome perceptions of the category as faceless. In addition it needed to activate consumer requests from both target audiences so they would actively seek Epzicom and Lexiva from doctors.

In an unusual move for the prescription-drug industry, GlaxoSmithKline developed an association with America’s best known and most popular drag queen show, RuPaul’s Drag Race. By developing a unique partnership with the LOGO network, a gay-oriented Television and Multi-Media property, GSK was able to develop customised digital “Living With HIV” programming.
RuPaul’s Drag Show was not only popular with the gay white male segment, but with African American women as well. Regular show contributor, Ongina, spoke honestly and touchingly about both his decision to reveal his HIV status and living a full life with the disease. The video was clearly supported by banner ads on the digital site for Epzicom and Lexiva. These powerful videos pushed through the cluttered environment with the added support of high impact media placements and 100% sponsorships throughout the site.

Results surveys revealed a 150% increase in “Intent to ask a doctor for a specific brand prescription”. The “Living with HIV” video playlist received over 200,000 views with over 25,000 video downloads of the digisodes, equivalent to over 125,000 minutes or 86 days, that patients spent engaged with the GSK/ Living With HIV programmes.