Launching an aesthetic product during COVID-19 sounds tricky, but Galderma’s looking on the bright side as it rolls out its newly approved Restylane Kysse lip filler.
The lip augmentation product got the FDA green light last month and began shipping to aesthetician offices. However, Galderma has been talking to providers for weeks during stay-at-home orders to explain the product and help them leverage the Kysse launch to motivate patients to come back into offices.
“We couldn’t have launched this several weeks ago,” said Alisa Lask, general manager and vice president of Galderma’s U.S. aesthetics business. “Now I think people are ready to invest back in themselves. Maybe they’ve watched themselves on Zoom meetings hour after hour, and they want to do something for themselves.”
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Galderma began working on a marketing campaign to roll out Kysse to aesthetic healthcare professionals earlier this year, but it had to switch up creative plans when the pandemic struck in the middle of campaign shoots. Instead of filming models on sets and in different locations, Galderma asked models do their own shoots at home and talk to sales reps on webcasts and launch calls.
The result? A campaign that’s authentic, natural and even a little gritty. Providers approve, with Galderma receiving “really good feedback on how genuine it is,” Lask said.
As states begin to open up, Galderma has mapped out a support strategy to assist them. It switched to digital information and materials, for instance, for healthcare providers to use with patients during telehealth sessions.
“We know patients are scared and so we really want to make sure that we don’t rush into this too much. So we’re cautious in what we’re doing,” Lask said. “Offices that are opening are being smart and careful with their protocols. But we also think this is a great way to start posting on your Instagram channel and social media to talk about, and to get patients to come back in.”
The professional marketing campaign will eventually go direct to consumer in the coming months. Using social media and digital patient testimonials—one of the Kysse models was Miss America—Galderma is planning an evolving rollout, looking forward to leveraging the fun in the product name in promotions and tapping what it sees as a surge of interest in lip treatments.
Lask pointed out that the FDA approval press release for Kysse got double the media coverage any Galderma products have gotten in the past, adding, “I think that shows there is a tremendous pent-up interest in aesthetics, especially in lips.”
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Restylane Kysse is a hyaluronic acid filler approved for lip augmentation and the correction of wrinkles around upper lips in adults over the age of 21. Galderma competitors in aesthetics include Merz Aesthetics and Allergan Aesthetics, which now operates under AbbVie.