Two agencies are partnering to introduce a Pharma Marketing unit. McCann Human Care and sister agency Casanova Pendrill (both owned by Interpublic) are introducing HumanCareHSP, Medical Marketing Media reports.
“Historically, very few pharma companies have reached out to Hispanics, and if they have, they’ve done so very one-dimensionally,” says Ingrid Otero-Smart, CEO of Casanova Pendrill. “We bring the best of both worlds,” said Otero-Smart. “We know this market intimately and McCann HumanCare knows pharma intimately.” HumanCare claims to be very knowledgeable about the regulatory environment associated with pharma advertising. Advertisers have often found regulatory hurdles to the efficient deployment of Hispanic pharma advertising (including issues such as the translation of indications).
“You can’t just do your 30-second ad in Spanish and check that box. TV is a part of it, but creating long-term engagement is about more than awareness, more than a single point of interruption” Otero Smart adds. Currently, less than 2% of pharma ad dollars are spent in the Hispanic market.
Small Space
Perhaps because the sector’s advertisty in the past, there is not a large amount of Healthcare marketing agencies in the space. Last fall, Global Advertising Strategies announced that the acquisition of Prime Access (read press release), to create an independently-owned healthcare marketing agency that focuses on reaching US Hispanic, African-American, Asian-American, LGBT, and other diverse US populations. After the acquisition, both agencies will “continue to work on over 30 pharmaceutical products across leading therapeutic categories (cardiovascular, oncology, infectious diseases, vaccines, etc) and some of the world’s largest global brands. Among those are Merck & Co., Inc. and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.”