Sanofi-Aventis’ bold move into social media

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere. ~ Frank A. Clark .  It’s really good to see a pharma company finally embrace social media and break away from the pack.  Will the Sanofi-Aventis site be successful ?  At this point who cares.  There is success is actually acknowledging that they need to do something and getting internal alignment to actually do it instead of just debate it in endless meetings.

In 2010, 89 million U.S. adults tapped social media resources for health-related purposes, compared with 63 million in 2008 and 38 million in 2007, according to a Manhattan Research study. Consumers who used social media for medical purposes created or consumed content on blogs, chat rooms, message boards, online communities and patient testimonials. The study found that once online, certain medical condition groups that tend to skew older, such as patients with cancer, are more likely to use social media for health reasons than their average age would predict.  So then doesn’t the drug industry want to be part of that conversation ?

I don’t know how many hours went into creating presentations that were shown at the FDA meeting on social media but I’ll bet that 99% of those presentations are out of date and irrelevant.  I have, in the past, called for the FDA to subscribe to Manhattan Research data and hire some marketing people who can “explain” to scientists how people are using the Internet for health and making health decisions.  There are just too many FDA people who are scientists and view everything with a scientific approach when we know that consumers decision making is anything but scientific or rational.

As patients become consumers of healthcare they are turning to each other more and more because they don’t trust advertisers.  Marketers should want to be part of the conversation but is has to be done in way that adds value to the forum. DTC marketers have to rethink some of their marketing efforts and realize that brands today are as much media as magazines and health websites.  It requires them to rethink basic marketing principles but more of all it requires and understanding by management that risk is an essential part of reaching out to today’s consumers of healthcare.

Congratulations to Sanofi-Aventis for their bold effort.  Let’s hope it will be lead more innovation and risk taking by DTC marketers.