Holmes Report 17 Aug 2011 // 11:00PM GMT
This campaign was about tackling a long recognised problem with a different and innovative approach. It was a UK first and smashed its targets.
The problem? Men don't visit their GP enough, often meaning serious diseases go undiagnosed and untreated. This has been a perennial challenge for healthcare providers. Men just don’t want to talk face-to-face about their health concerns.
Pfizer recognised that in the social media/digital sphere, very intimate conversations
could be combined with anonymity. This was the beginning of ManMOT.co.uk (Monday Opportunity to Talk) -the UK's first online surgery for men, offering medical advice in total confidence, from qualified GPs via a live web-chat every Monday night.
Launched just after the Government’s NHS White Paper Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS, Man MOT captivated the very essence of the Government’s long-term vision for the NHS: exploring new ways to improve patient services. However, introducing innovative initiatives within such a tightly regulated environment is challenging and much of the social/digital sphere is uncharted territory for the pharmaceutical industry. Partnering with leading patient organisations was key to success and ensuring fair and balanced content.
Via the service to date, 525 men have received personal healthcare advice and 22,999 have consulted the portal for trusted and accurate health information –the sorts of numbers usually registered with a large GP practice. Importantly, awareness of the wider issue of the need for men to visit their GP has also been boosted with the campaign generating more than 525 million opportunities-to-see in the media. Due to this success, Man MOT attracted two new high-profile partners in Dec 2010: NHS Direct and NHS Choices, further demonstrating the value of this service for NHS patients.
OBJECTIVES
Following a successful pilot, reviewed by the UK’s Department of Health, we were able to set SMART objectives:
1. Build on NHS objectives of providing accessible, credible healthcare support for a difficult-to-reach patient population
TARGET: 10,500 visits (500 a week) and 420 consultations over initial 21 week period
2. Create long-term stakeholder support and integrate campaign into mainstream health resources
TARGET: Five key stakeholders join as partners
3. Grow Pfizer’s profile and influence as a leading provider of men’s health information and support
TARGET: 100m opportunities-to-see via traditional and digital media, 75% of coverage naming Man MOT and/or Pfizer
CHALLENGES AND STRATEGY
Creating an anonymous, online tool for men to seek healthcare advice offered a simple solution to the enormous problem of men not engaging with healthcare support. However, this would only be a success if the site was executed with excellence, supported via organisations men look to and trust, and had awareness -not just at launch but months on.Together, Red and Pfizer created a robust 360media strategy to engage men:
1. A strong media launch to catapult Man MOT into the limelight and raise awareness amongst the target audience of men
2. PR 'boosters' to maintain awareness and continue to drive traffic over a period of eight months (to date)
3. A rolling review of traffic drivers to maximise activity that is shown to be most successfulAll underpinned by a constant ‘review and recommend’ stakeholder programme which ensured the site evolved along with stakeholder / patient needs
CAMPAIGN EXECUTION
Creating an excellent service supported by stakeholders:
•A pre-launch round-table ensured Man MOT addressed the concerns of frontline practitioners, relevant patient groups and charities. This collaboration resulted in partnerships with Men's Health Forum, Diabetes UK, Sexual Advice Association, Relate and the National Obesity Forum.
•Regular evaluation ensured we kept their support and continued to meet the needs of their patients. For example, in Dec 2010 we updated the service to include SMS remindersof surgery opening times and were able to add the NHS Choices symptom checker; NHS Direct advice line; and the Family Planning Association, as they came on board.
•We also identified locum GPs and trained them in adverse events reporting, ensuring an excellent service for men. A strong launch -Creating news relevance:
•A sexual confidence study, conducted with the News of the World and Men's Health, initiated conversations with men about sexual health -an area that they are particularly reluctant to discuss with HCPs.
•Sex and Relationships expert Tracey Cox was brought on board as a media spokesperson andMan MOT counsellor -she continues to work with us hosting dedicated sex and relationship surgeries on the website. The resulting 276 pieces of news coverage accounted for more than 400m OTS and Google Analytics showed a Guardian hit alone accounted for 3,646 visits.
PR Boosters:
•Social media partnerships Using the stats from the sex survey we instigated partnerships with popular ‘bloke blogs’ Anorak.co.uk and whoateallthepies.tv. As part of the activity an interactive widget encouraging men to think about their health was also created. Over 1,232 referrals to Man MOT came from these blogs.
•Campaigning for Men -and re-igniting interest Six months on, flu season was on the horizon and the ubiquitous term 'man flu' was doing the rounds. We used this mockery to draw attention to the fact that, as a nation, we need to stop trivialising men's health concerns. Alongside new research we launched 'Don't be a Wilbert'-a short film that dramatised this issue in a tongue in cheek way and gave us content for the successful blog channels at launch. ‘Wilbert’ online ads were also created and the channels were tweaked over a few weeks to ensure the best blend delivering the best impact. More widespread coverage followed including the Mirror and Zoo magazine and Wilbert went viral -gaining 10,000 hits on You Tube within hours of launch.
•Tactical media partnerships. We tapped into the target male audience with a partnership with Talk Sport -using the Don't Be a Wilbert creative in radio ads. Visits to the Man MOT site doubled: so we extended the run. MSN Him, Askmen.co.uk and Men’s Health Online are also on board to run month long editorial partnerships from February.
TARGETS vs RESULTS
TARGET: 10,500 visits (500 a week) and 420 consultations over 21 weeks
•22,999 visits overall (50% increaseon target)
•525 consultations –an average of 19 per surgery session
•74 % of traffic to the site is new, meaning that we’re constantlyengaging with newaudiences.
TARGET: Five key stakeholders join as partners Eight partnerships: Men's Health Forum, Diabetes UK, Sexual Advice Association, Relate and the National Obesity Forum, FamilyPlanning Association, NHS Choices and NHS Direct. We’ve also been able to include a link to the NHS Symptom Checker
TARGET: 100m OTS via traditional and digital media, 75% of coverage naming Man MOT and or Pfizer More than 500 millionOTSacross 322 pieces of media coverage
98% namingMan MOT or Pfizer