Since its inception in 1998, Viagra has undergone a strategic transformation.
Upjohn UK, a division of Pfizer, has sought to expand the legacy audience of Viagra, a blockbuster erectile dysfunction (ED) drug, and bring a new tone to messaging through the drug’s repositioning.
At Advertising Week 2020, Rob Elliott, Marketing Director at Upjohn UK, explained how Viagra’s research and repositioning had illuminated how much of a taboo subject ED is and how much it affects men and their emotional health and relationships.
The drug repositioning research of Viagra brought a few unexpected benefits. Considering those benefits, Elliot said, “We were really hit by that.”
Viagra is one of the widely recognized brands, but it has been “trivialized as a medicine, made fun of, and generally been hugely misunderstood,” Elliot noted.
Undeniably, the little blue pill has helped millions of men with ED, but its repositioning has taken a more emotional and compassionate tone.
One of the benefits is giving men with ED a peace of mind. ED can affect not only erectile health but also mental health, as it may cause constant stress, sleep disturbance, which again are a few causes of ED.
A two-minute animated video on YouTube titled “Don’t let life get in the way of your love story” tells the story of Tom and Jess, a regular, everyday couple who have let life get in the way of their love. They struggle to maintain their love life.
The video suggests that younger men can also experience erectile dysfunction, which could take a toll on their mental health and intimate relationship.
Elliot said that apart from targeting a younger audience, an unexpected side effect has been the platforms that were previously reluctant to carry Viagra ads that “have been keen to push the message of normalization and open up the conversation around erection problems.”
“Their support makes a huge difference,” he added. The article originally appeared on WARC.
