A media tour featuring Jim Palmer, the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame pitcher, helped make the nagging condition of acid reflux disease easier to swallow for chronic heartburn
sufferers.
Throughout April Palmer discussed how his 10-year silent struggle with the disease, also known as GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) affected his performance on the mound
and eventually forced him to go to the doctor after losing his voice during a public appearance.
The doctor prescribed AstraZeneca's Prilosec and for the past five years it has relieved Palmer's heartburn.
His experience shaped the "Two strikes and you're... in the doctor's office" PR campaign launched by AstraZeneca, which drove home the message -- online and offline -- that if
symptoms of heartburn are experienced more than twice a week, sufferers should see a doctor.
Throughout the 30-city media tour, the campaign hammered away at two key news hooks:
- More than 21 million Americans may suffer from GERD, often mistaking it for ordinary heartburn.
- Even though Palmer modified his diet and eating schedule and took over-the-counter medications, he continued to suffer from persistent heartburn.
The campaign also became a launch pad for AstraZeneca to test-drive consumer focused Webcasts at a cost of $30,000 to $50,000. (Previously, Webcasts were used to target
physician audiences.) The Webcasts, distributed by Healthology, complemented the media tour by giving news organizations a vehicle for promoting and driving traffic to their Web
sites. This strategy appealed to national news sites like FOXNews, ABCNews.com and CBSHealthWatch, which featured the Webcasts and hosted chat sessions on GERD.
To date the interactive segments have been downloaded more than 44,000 times and generated 110,000 impressions. Overall the campaign generated more than 200 million
impressions.
Heartburn and Baseball
Using Palmer as a spokesman allowed the issue of GERD to be discussed in a new and unlikely context -- sports and, more specifically, baseball. As a result, sports journalists
were just as interested as health reporters in Palmer's story, generating 50/50 sports/health coverage for the campaign. In several markets the campaign exploited the baseball
season and played up stories of how heartburn problems prevented Palmer from playing to his full potential.
The messages resonated particularly well with men, who often ignore the symptoms of persistent heartburn, says Kim Callahan, managing supervisor of Fleishman Hillard,
AstraZeneca's PR agency.
Palmer's heartburn experience also provided convincing motivation to talk to a doctor about GERD symptoms.
Because the campaign's call to action was to discuss heartburn complications with a doctor, physicians were considered a secondary target. They were reached through physician
dinners after media interviews were scheduled, attracting 10 to 20 doctors in each market. The dinners gave them a heads up on the campaign and discussed the symptoms that were
most common among GERD sufferers.
Webcasts Broaden Reach
The campaign's online component also relied heavily on physician input. The Webcasts featured medical professionals interviewing Palmer and fielding email questions about GERD
and heartburn. The first two Webcasts focused on Jim Palmer's story and insights and the last two highlighted GERD symptoms and treatment options.
Throughout the month of April, the series aired weekly at 9 p.m. and was promoted with banners and buttons that Web sites could use to drive traffic to the program. Online
pitching strategies focused on allowing Web sites to customize the coverage they provided, says Jean Pundiak, AstraZeneca's e-promotions manager. For instance, sites that were not
interested in the Webcasts could produce their own video, which is how efit.com covered the story.
News sites could also archive the Webcasts and chat sessions. Altogether online pitching efforts resulted in 35 news sites using the Webcasts and 19 additional sites like Major
League Baseball, USAToday.com and Chicago-Tribune.com either promoting the Webcasts or running feature stories with interactive links. Beyond the Webcasts, two Web sites supported
the campaign, http://www.gerdawareness.com and http://www.purplepill.com.
In developing content for the second site, the key challenge was anticipating the kind of follow-up information consumers would be most interested in after viewing the
Webcasts, says Pundiak.
The PR team decided that the sites would focus on filling interactive gaps with features that allowed consumers to learn about GERD symptoms and get customized feedback.
In addition to providing detailed GERD information, the sites included a symptom quiz, FAQs, heartburn facts, tips for discussing symptoms with doctors and a symptom diary.
These back-end interactive tools also provided multiple online formats for echoing the campaign's core messages. "We could expand the way we talked about heartburn, GERD
symptoms and treatment options in compelling ways," says Pundiak.
(AstraZeneca, Emily Young, Jean Pundiak, 610/695-1977; Fleishman Hillard, Kim Callahan, 212/453-2425)