One (BIG) Reason Pharma Shouldn't Reconsider Instagram

It's the comment moderation policy. Most of the Pharma Instagram accounts just focus on nice corporate "feel-good" images that are not about products. The comments attached to such posts are likely to be benign and even full of praise. But any substantial promotional-type posts to Instagram by pharma are likely to generate more negative comments.

Should #Pharma Consider Instagram for Promotion & Patient Engagement?

See all my Scoops about Instagram here, where you can find links to pharma Instagram accounts.

How Kim Kardashian Got Hired to Shill for Diclegis by "Auditioning" in a Nutraceutical Ad

You may recall that the FDA sent a letter to Duchesnay Inc. because an Instagram post by Kim Kardashian promoting the company's morning sickness drug Diclegis violated the law (read "Kim Kardashian's Diclegis Instagram Post Raises Issues").

Some time afterward, Alex Peterson, SVP, Health Practice Director at Makovsky -- the agency that hired Kim to do the Diclegis Instagram social media campaign - claimed that Makovsky, through social monitoring, knew that Kardashian was struggling with nausea during her first pregnancy. She’d been talking about morning sickness for weeks (read this account).

No doubt Makovsky also knew that Kardashian promoted nutraceuticals years earlier in 2010. As reported by STAT, in a video ad for QuickTrim (see end of this post), "Khloe Kardashian rolls languorously in a tangle of white sheets and asks, 'Do you feel sexy? Do you have the body you’ve always dreamed of?' The shot switches to her sister Kim, shimmying out of a pool and commanding viewers to 'Create the body you deserve'" (read "Celebrity selfies, lax regulations drive booming supplement industry").

Makovsky claimed they reached out to tell Kim about Diclegis and found out that she was already taking the drug -- her doctor had just prescribed it.

But could Kim have been talking about her morning sickness as a prelude to working with Makovsky so that the above account by Peterson would sound perfectly plausible?

Read more »

FDA Acts on Violative Social Media Posts a Lot More Quickly Than It Does for TV and Print Ads

Kim Kardashian posted a violative Diclegis® ad on Instagram (read “Kim Kardashian's Diclegis Instagram Post Raises Issues of Transparency, Drug Safety, and Learning from History”). She was paid to do that by Duchesnay -- the company that makes & markets Diclegis.

But did you know that the ad also was posted to her Twitter and Facebook accounts?

Here's how the FDA depicted the campaign (find the original here):

Click on image for an enlarged view.

What does this show us? How did the FDA get so social media savvy? Note two things:

Read more »

Social Media "Corrective Messages": Closing the Barn Door After the Cow Has Left!

You undoubtedly know about Kim Kardashian's Instagram post that promoted Diclegis® for treating morning sickness and which resulted in a warning letter from the FDA because it "entirely omits all risk information" (read “Kim Kardashian's Diclegis Instagram Post Raises Issues of Transparency, Drug Safety, and Learning from History”).

A Klick Wire email newsletter said that this may have been the “quickest warning letter in history.” The FDA knew about the post at the time it was made or beforehand because Duchesnay -- the company that makes & markets Diclegis -- and all other drug companies are required by law to submit any promotional material to FDA’s OPDP “at the time of first use” together with a form called Form 2253. The Instagram post was also submitted as a complaint to the OPDP Bad Ad Program.

So, it’s no surprise that the FDA acted quickly in issuing the Warning Letter, which requested that Duchesnay immediately cease misbranding DICLEGIS and/or cease introducing the misbranded drug into interstate commerce. Duchesnay complied quickly and removed the violative Instagram post.

But so far Duchesnay/Kim Kardashian has not complied with another FDA request: to disseminate truthful, non-misleading, and complete corrective messages. What's the process for doing that? How long will it take? Will it work?

Read more »

6 Tips for Brands Using Vine a Instagram Video

Short-form video is an invaluable tool in the marketers kit. With the incredible popularity of Vine and Instagram videos as of late, the savvy marketers amongst you will no doubt have picked up on it’s plethora of opportunities and potential reach, with studies showing that 40% of the top 1000 most shared Instagram videos for last month were brand led.

In fact, Instagram's 15 second videos are creating twice the engagement that images do and not only are users watching but they are also sharing and embedding them. The downside of all this of course is that getting your content seen is even more of a challenge. Greater popularity = Greater competition meaning your video has to be even better than it’s multitude of competitors. But never fear! Here are some top tips to make your video the cream of the corporate crop.

1.) Tell a Story: Real Time is all well and good, but giving your story some context can make it even more engaging to the viewer. What do you want your video to say? Using it as a storytelling arc may mean more time prepping and planning - thinking about storyboards, angles, and what it is you are trying to achieve. This extra effort could, however, serve in making your video more memorable and aid it’s longevity.

2.) Listen!: Instagram & Vine are pretty much entirely mobile-based applications, so the sound quality can sometimes be hit-and-miss. Be sure to place yourself at a close enough distance to your object so that you can clearly capture what it is you want your audience to hear. It might even be worth using a microphone to get the crispest audio possible, especially when in a noisy environment.

3.) Have Some Fun: Never be afraid to show some personality in your content. Above all, Instagram and Vine are social platforms - people are waaay more likely to follow you for likeability over professionalism. Make sure you build relationships with your audience and maintain a strong sense of character throughout your videos. Having a personality can engage viewers and help cement good customer relationships.

4.) Use a Great Thumbnail: First impressions DO count! The thumbnail is the first thing viewers will see and has to encourage them to click through to the actual content, so it’s worth making them as appealing as possible. Pick one that could stand alone as a picture, but also teases the viewer into watching the whole video.

5.) Hold Steady: Mobile phone footage is the worst culprit when it comes to shaky, jerky shots. Stop moving and set the phone down on or against a steady surface, or better still, mount it on a tripod. If you absolutely must be holding the camera, consider keeping the focus object stationary in the shot whilst you move with them, it will help create smoother transitions and stop the overall footage from being too disjointed.

6.) Experiment with Angles: Unless you're doing a stop-motion piece, try and vary the perspectives of your shots as much as possible.Experiment with close-ups, wide shots, big reveals...just doing something as seemingly simple of this could make your video more interesting as well as provide you with some excellent practice.

Madeleine Hammond is a marketing executive at Skeleton Productions - one of the UK's leading video production companies.