Zyrtec Portugal and Izertis: Branding strategy for its launch as an OTC medicine
Izertis, through its Digital Experience area, has developed a brand activation strategy for the biopharmaceutical multinational UCB in order to make known to the Portuguese market the great change in one of its most important products: Zyrtec. This, since 2018, can be purchased without a medical prescription in pharmacies and parapharmacies in Portugal. Zyrtec is a medication used for the treatment of allergy, indicated for adults and minors from six years of age, commercialized by UCB.
The UCB's Established Brands department, responsible for the company's mature products, such as Zyrtec, was looking for a partner to be in charge of defining and executing the product launch strategy and its new status as an OTC (Over The Counter medicine) product.
To do this, Izertis has designed a global marketing campaign aimed at both pharmacies and the patients themselves and created to increase the visibility, position and notoriety of the brand in the digital environment, establishing differentiating values with respect to the competence in the long term. Considering these objectives, various actions have been developed, which we continue to work on and expand today.
It began with the creation of the claim, the creative concept and the key messages of the campaign, together with the global design of its graphic line, including that of all offline POS materials (Place of Sale Advertising) and merchandising for pharmacies. Concurrently, we proceeded to design a complete website with information related to allergy, its symptoms, prevention and care, which has a blog section with practical advice and all the information related to the medicine. This website is maintained through a careful communication strategy, adjusted to an editorial and content plan, which continuously feeds the blog with current specialized publications and information of interest, along with other graphic materials, such as infographics, downloadable guides for patients, and videos, hosted on their own YouTube channel.
Offline environments
Advertising campaigns are an important reinforcement in the proposed marketing strategy, creating and managing advertising campaigns periodically to increase the visibility and reputation of the brand in the digital environment. The advertising actions have also been extended to the offline environment, through the creation of advertisements for magazines aimed at the pharmaceutical sector.
Finally, another of the great pillars of the developed marketing strategy focuses on Social Media: the creation and maintenance of communities on Facebook and Instagram strengthens the digital presence of the brand and enhances consumer confidence and awareness.
The results of the plan defined for the launch of Zyrtec as an OTC medicine in Portugal have not been delayed. Both, the visibility and the reputation of the brand have increased in these years since its launch, meanwhile the community of its channels in social media grows continuously and visits to its website also maintain the same growth trend gradual in number of visits.