Envisioning 2.0

A bit of a buzz has been going around the pharma blogosphere about a new marketing campaign for the over the counter allergy medicine (OTC) Zyrtec.  Jack Friday at PharmaGossip has wondered whether it’s legal.  Yes, as John Mack, author of Pharma Marketing Blog, noted. The marketing campaign is perfectly legal as Zyrtec is now an OTC pill.

However, Mack wondered whether it is true, as Adrants reported, that Zyrtec flyers were seen on telephone poles in Boston.  He said: “I doubt this is a true story — more likely a Web 2.0 plant by crafty Zyrtec marketers.”

Well, shortly after I read these two blog posts, I left my windowless cubicle for a dose of fresh air and sunshine and what did I see?  Well, I caught a glimpse of a flyer taped to scaffolding near my office in New York’s East Village.  So, yes the rumors are true.  McNeil has instituted a clever guerilla marketing campaign once reserved for consumer packaged goods companies and underground musical acts.  I took a moment to scan in the flyer.  As you can see, someone was curious enough to respond to the marketing campaign by ripping off a section of the flyer with the Zyrtec 800 number.

Overall, this is a very, very clever campaign that’s sure to generate a lot of buzz for Zyrtec.

This entry was posted on April 16, 2008 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Marketing Communications, The Pharmaceutical Industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.