Evolus is running a smooth new campaign for anti-wrinkle treatment Jeuveau as it looks to continue its Botox market battle with a focus on “switching your tox.”
Jeuveau is the first new neurotoxin in 12 years and Evolus’ only product. It was approved in February 2019 and launched that May specifically for the aesthetic treatment of moderate to severe frown lines in adults.
Allergan/AbbVie’s Botox, which also zeroes in on this crowd (but has a long list of other medical approvals as well), has long been the market leader, but Evolus is looking to change that.
Switching is key to Evolus' goal, and that's the message the company is taking to consumers. “Switch Your Tox and Love Evolus Forever” reads the new campaign. It marks the company's “largest-ever consumer engagement program,” it said in a press release.
Evolus is taking the fight to Botox, David Moatazedi, CEO of Evolus, said in an interview. “As evidenced by our above-market growth rate, we are already successfully competing against Botox.
“In fact, Jeuveau is the highest-selling aesthetic product launched since 2019, with sales to more than 7,500 practices nationwide and a reorder rate of over 70 percent.”
While consumers have several toxin options to choose from, Moatazedi noted that “we believe that after two consecutive treatments of Jeuveau, they will make the switch.”
He said that the company’s cash-pay business model “enables Evolus to take a fresh, unconventional approach to marketing that our competitors can’t.”
This includes using a co-branded marketing strategy “to help our customers build their practices and promote our brand.”
In reality, this means those who “purchase specified quantities of Jeuveau” (though it did not reveal the exact figure) can nab discounts as well as access to “exclusive in-office events.” Co-branded marketing incentives include streaming television advertisements and digital ads “with a direct call to action to book appointments using a smartphone and QR code.”
Moatazedi said Evolus is deliberately “leaning heavily into digital” to reach the next generation of consumers. Its first major marketing push was in 2020, and it shaped the company as a beauty firm, rather than a pharma, and went after the millennial market.
There is still some distance between Botox and Jeuveau, however. Evolus’ drug made $99.7 million last year, which is up 76% over 2020, though it only launched midway through that year.
That revenue is a drop in the bucket compared to the $5.23 billion AbbVie’s Botox generated worldwide in 2021. So there is still much room to grow for the upstart, and of course Botox has several other indications that Evolus is eschewing for a pure aesthetics approach.
Analysts on the SVB Leerink team suggested earlier this year in a note to clients that Jeuveau has “significant” room to grab a bigger slice of the roughly $2 billion U.S. aesthetics pie.