Establishing a pharmaceutical brand is hard enough with the over-saturated nature of the industry, brands also have to push against the ever-growing tide of brands online. The battle for eyeballs and attention is fierce, for any industry.
Balancing between being part of a serious industry and engaging social media users is tough for pharmaceutical products. Finding that inner balance is French pharmaceutical company, Sanofi, whose social media accounts are an example of how social media and big Pharma can exist.
We look at 3 of their OTC products social media accounts (Maalox, Novaldol, Telfast) and their health awareness campaign, Sanofi Diabetes, who have been able to keep fans quite engaged this past year.
Keeping it Light-Hearted
Sanofi and their digital agency, Eureka Digital, have been keeping it a bit more comedic with two of their main pages. Maalox and Novaldol have been leading the pack with their own separate brand of light and sarcastic captions.
Maalox and Novaldol are leading products in their respective categories, with a solid engagement strategy.
When Maalox talks, it talks Comedy
At 269K fans, this antacid medicine has been focused on relatable posts with a tinge of comedy. The Facebook page’s engagement rate between Nov. 2017 and 2018 is 86.3%, with an average 2.97% per post.
Do you remember their ad from Ramadan this year?
Pain-killing Sarcasm
Their pain-killer, Novaldol, leans more into our favorite engagement theme, Sarcasm. Using this focus, the brand has been able to grab a 121.2% Facebook page engagement rate, with an 8.6% per post. They play with simple elements to emphasize the headaches around us.
The brand also has a small snarky side, subtlety making fun of their competition with a short-animated video.
Back to Good Ol’ Advice Giving
Sanofi’s other half is all about being the doctor or advice giver, starting with Telfast. With this antihistamine over the counter med, the pharmaceutical company leans towards a more consumer-centered informatic social style.
Throughout the page, you can find examples of the style where the brand talks about protecting yourself from dirt/sand storms, causes of allergies, symptoms and more.
The brand must be doing something right, with their Facebook page handling an engagement rate of 421.46% between Nov. 2017 and 2018, alongside 6.58% engagement per post.
The thing about this post is not just its informatic nature, it’s about its timing, noting that there was a storm at that time.
Finally, Sanofi’s diabetes awareness campaign which aims to provide diabetic patients and their caregivers with all the needed information and advice on how to control diabetes properly and avoid its complications, living the healthy life they deserve.
The engagement rate for the page is at a whopping 1213.55%, with around 15.76% engagement per post.
Big Pharma on Social
Sanofi’s work shows us that although sarcasm usually leads in many other industries, going the safe and informatic route is the way to go for pharmaceutical companies.
Among the mentioned OTC accounts, Telfast has the highest engagement rate per page, although Novaldol’s engagement rate per post is the highest of them all.
Of all the posts on all 4 accounts, Novaldol again steals the show with this post.
The post boasts 72.5K likes.
Sanofi’s digital agency of 3 years, Eureka Digital, has been providing the guiding hand for the brand’s great social media community building.
Eureka Digital is a vibrant digital agency founded in England, operating from their offices in Cairo and Dubai, delivering all in digital marketing aspects, while maintaining their startup spirit.
Their success comes from gathering a powerful team of creatives and designers backed by a very solid team of medical social media specialists.
You can find them here.
