IMS Lead Generation Program
"Before we begin every campaign, we insist on setting clear objectives. Working with Garfield Group yields dividends 10 times over because they too, are razor-focused on aligning creative with business goals to drive results. "
— Michele Lichtenfield, Director, Marketing Communications, IMS Health
How can you creatively combine offline and online tactics to engage a difficult-to-reach audience?
Working with IMS Health, we developed a program that surpassed expectations — generating high-quality leads and establishing an important new consulting service.
Challenge:
IMS Health is the world’s leading provider of market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. Every major pharma and biotech company, such as Merck, Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb, relies on IMS to help understand their markets, establish a competitive position and find ways to improve their marketing and sales effectiveness.
IMS Promo.360 is a source of market data used to enhance commercial effectiveness — helping brand managers and market researchers understand how well various parts of their Pharma promotional mix (detailing, advertising, etc.) are working. As they marketed the service, IMS discovered that the consulting services portion of Promo.360 (a strong area for potential revenue growth) had little market awareness.
Results:
After spending time exploring the mindset of our audiences and possible messaging and engagement strategies, we recommended a multi-tier, multi-touch direct marketing campaign, featuring a strong web-based lead capture mechanism.
High-level prospects received a dimensional mailer that featured an mp3 player pre-loaded with podcasts hosted by star IMS consultants. The idea was to have prospects hear from the consultants themselves, providing valuable content and promoting IMS thought leadership. As a call to action, we drove prospects to an online registration form to schedule a meeting with a team of IMS consultants. Those who did would receive a free digital picture frame.
Postcards and emails were used to create additional “touches” and create urgency for our call to action. Not only did the program earn response rates twice the industry average, we also exceeded IMS’s podcast download goal by 10%. The results were so positive that the same program was launched in four other countries.
