As pharma companies tentatively take to TikTok, AbbVie is using the wildly popular app to get people to take a break.
In a series of short videos, AbbVie, which markets migraine drug Ubrelvy, urges us all to take a moment from constant online scrolling and enjoy takes on relaxation via the “Migraine Relief Tok” campaign.
In one video, AbbVie notes, “too much screen time can trigger a migraine,” and, with gently passing waves in a light blue sea, invites the viewer to “breathe in, breathe out” and to “discover migraine relief anytime, anywhere, with Ubrelvy.”
This builds on AbbVie’s initial Ubrelvy DTC campaign “Anytime, Anywhere,” which debuted last April and included two black-and-white TV ads featuring vignettes of people in everyday situations dealing with migraine.
The new TikTok account, a blue-ticked Ubrelvy, already has 80,000 likes and more than 6,000 followers. Other videos in the same format contain gently falling rain on the window, a slow move through dewy grass at sunrise and rain making contact with water, each racking in millions of views each.
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TikTok could be a big marketing opportunity for pharma, though, given the industry’s cautious nature, companies are going slowly.
That being said, just this month Salix also took to TikTok for its new constipation campaign, with its marketing head telling Fierce Pharma Marketing it would turn to the video app more and more in the future.
AbbVie is in a tight market for migraine drugs, with a host of new meds all competing for space. So, unsurprisingly, this isn’t Ubrelvy’s first migraine campaign. Last summer, the company served up an ace when it announced tennis phenom and migraine sufferer Serena Williams as Ubrelvy’s new spokesperson.
RELATED: AbbVie serves up Grand Slam tennis champion Serena Williams as new Ubrelvy spokesperson
The migraine field has seen a surge of activity with three CGRP approvals in the last two years alone. Amgen and Novartis shot out to a lead with their market-first Aimovig, but Eli Lilly has been gaining steam lately with Emgality, which was swiftly followed by an approval for Teva's Ajovy. Lilly then scored another FDA nod for new migraine treatment Reyvow.
Amgen and Novartis, being first to an approval, got the early lead in marketing, with their first campaign, “I Am Here,” rolling out back in 2018. The campaign was created with insights gleaned over several years from people with migraines and focused on migraine sufferers not missing out on life because of their disorder.
Lilly’s most recent marketing efforts centered on its “Think Talk Treat” initiative, which this summer went local with pilots in four metro areas around the U.S., building on patient insights from Lilly’s OVERCOME real-world migraine study. The idea here was to help migraine sufferers overcome reluctance to seek care for their condition.
Lilly also tapped social media to prompt people to go to the campaign website for resources, which include a checklist for talking to doctors and an ID Migraine tool to help identify migraine.
AbbVie, meanwhile, nabbed its oral CGRP through the acquisition of Allergan, which gained an FDA approval two years ago this month for acute migraines as they happen.
Biohaven has also gotten in on the act, getting approval for its migraine effort Nurtec ODT and also getting "Keeping up with the Kardashians" star Khloe Kardashian as its spokesperson, just weeks before Williams signed on for AbbVie.
AbbVie also wasn’t done with the migraine approvals, grabbing a second FDA green light in September for Qulipta, another oral CGRP, but this time for preventing episodic migraines.
Taking to TikTok for the first time in this push, AbbVie is hoping to slow things down for patients but keep its foot firmly on the gas pedal for its marketing strategies.