Joshua Grace, Regional Marketing Officer, India & South East Asia, Abbott, talks about the brand’s latest campaign, exhorting consumers to live full, healthy lives.
BY CHRISTINA MONIZ
Q] Take us through the insight behind the latest ‘Unlimited Possibilities. Unstoppable You’ campaign from Abbott.
At Abbott, we are all about helping people lead healthier, fuller lives through the power of health. Our purpose - Life. To The Fullest – encapsulates this succinctly. Through the ‘Unlimited Possibilities. Unstoppable You’ campaign, we chose to demonstrate how modern healthcare has helped people have a life full of rich experiences and moments. In fact, if it weren’t for modern healthcare, the film wouldn’t exist at all. The cast and crew in our ad film have all overcome a personal health challenge. Ultimately, our story is only possible because of their spirit, backed by modern healthcare and Abbott’s breakthrough products.
Q] How is this campaign in India different from your communication in other regions?
Helping people lead healthier, fuller lives is at the forefront of all that we do. As a leading healthcare company, our objective is for people to know and understand our purpose and breakthrough products, and our purpose is consistent across the world. How we tell the story changes by the market. In India, we have taken the approach of communicating our global purpose through our own local stories. For the Indian market, we use TV more extensively to amplify our brand purpose and key message.
Q] With such a wide product portfolio, how do you manage your communication efforts across different product categories?
We are achieving this in two ways. We build Abbott’s reputation top-down through our major campaigns, like this current activity. You can tell from the storytelling in our ad film that we touch upon each of the major therapy areas that Abbott specialises in, across all our divisions. We are also building awareness and understanding bottom-up. Our divisions drive product marketing requirements to build awareness for our various product lines.
Q] At a time when consumers are becoming increasingly aware of safe and healthy choices, how does Abbott ensure that its products meet the necessary health parameters?
Q] What is the kind of media mix you’re using for this campaign? What medium has worked best for you?
The major chunk of our ad spends is on Broadcast media, followed by Digital. There is no medium more powerful to drive emotional connection than film. So you will find the majority of our work focused on TV and online video. Our main ad film will be playing on TV across Hindi and English GEC, Hindi and English movie channels, news channels, infotainment channels and on online platforms. We are also amplifying the stories of our cast and crew across various Digital platforms.
Q] What else are you doing in the Digital space to connect with consumers? How are these working for Abbott?
Today, the Digital space is growing in a big way. Our campaigns have been well received on digital platforms over the past couple of years. Our Digital campaigns are usually part of a more integrated plan. For example, last year we used the power of Radio to create theatre of the mind. Our crews recorded real people, telling their own stories about living life fully. People did some amazing things while we were recording for a live radio ad and these videos were shared digitally. While our film received as many as 7.8 million views on YouTube, the videos of the radio spots, which were also on YouTube, received more than 10 Million views. We are using Digital extensively for our ongoing campaign to amplify our core message and to tell the stories of our cast and crew.
Q] How does Abbott distinguish itself from other players in the market?
At the core, we are a business genuinely dedicated to helping people lead better lives. This is why we talk about our purpose so much. Our strength lies in our global expertise in creating high quality, breakthrough products that help people tackle their health challenges and live fuller lives.
Q] How does Abbott engage with audiences in the Tier II and Tier III markets?
The reason we use broadcast media extensively is because it enables us to reach across India and engage with audiences even in the smaller markets. We complement the TV campaigns with a highly targeted Digital strategy for the big metros.
Q] What are some of the challenges Abbott has faced in India?
One of the real challenges has been building awareness in the first place. While we have been here in India for over 100 years, most of our focus until recently has been on the medical professional target group. Our objective now is to build our awareness and reputation with end consumers by inspiring them through our purpose. We have made great progress in the last two years. Now our focus is on converting that reputation into growth for the organisation.
Q] What are some of the emerging consumer trends that will drive Abbott’s growth in the years ahead?
No one can deny the fact that a digitally networked world has empowered consumers more than ever, and it is now up to us to work with stakeholders to ensure that consumers have the right information they need to tackle personal health challenges. There is so much conflicting information available now, so it is critical to ensure consumers have a local trusted source of information to make the right decisions. Digital is disrupting entire categories at a rapid pace, but it hasn’t been as fast in the healthcare space on account of necessary regulations. And this is right; nothing is more important than ensuring health products are delivered in a safe and effective manner. But the Digital disruption is happening in healthcare too. You can see it in how supply chains start to get affected, with the emergence of e-commerce pharmacy players. Even more critically you can see it in the revolutionary health products being created, like Freestyle Libre Pro, our wearable glucose monitoring solution, which is fundamentally changing diabetes management. The ‘internet-of-things’ solutions will only thrive in the years to come enabling consumers to more proactively manage their health and live healthier, fuller lives.
@ FEEDBACK christina.moniz@exchange4media.com
