Leading FDA Approval

Challenge

Many biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical and medical device companies vie for market share in the medical aesthetics marketplace. As KYTHERA prepared to launch KYBELLA™, the first and only injectable to treat submental fullness, also known as a double chin, it looked for help to break into this high-potential space. However, there were two obstacles to overcome: many HCPs were unable to see the need for a treatment for submental fullness, but others, particularly plastic surgeons, viewed an injectable as a threat to the present treatment they provided to patients – surgery.

Action

We launched a fully integrated branded and unbranded campaign to launch KYBELLA™:

  • Refreshed the company’s positioning and developed corporate branding, including a new corporate website
  • Managed global media relations to secure top-tier and trade media coverage
  • Leveraged leading aesthetic KOLs to educate their peers on the overlooked and undertreated aesthetic condition (this was critical to the success of the campaign)
  • Established an unbranded physician education program on submental fullness, including an attention-grabbing unbranded microsite and interactive advertising campaign to engage HCPs (with the short timeframe before FDA approval – less than one year – the team invested heavily in digital advertising to optimize creative and use best-performing ads to drive traffic to the website)

Impact

KYBELLA™ was 2015’s most successful drug approval in terms of media, generating:

1 BILLION media impressions with more than 90 percent of stories including five or more positive messages

Exclusive interviews provided to top-tier outlets, including The New York Times, Allure, Good Morning America, The TODAY Show, The View, The Wall Street Journal, and other bellwether media

Targeted HCP advertising campaign drove significant traffic to unbranded website and exceeded goal for HCP registrations.

Unprecedented demand among physicians – a leading KOL praised “the best execution of an FDA approval and media coverage ever seen for a medical aesthetic product”

Click-through rates that surpassed industry standard for digital campaign ads (0.17% vs. 0.03-0.08%)

~1,200 engagements with interactive touch-screen kiosk at ASDS medical meeting visited by 1/3 of attendees