Branding Irons - über Impact Unlimited

PHOTOS: TOADOVISION, JOHN RODGERS
SIZZLE AWARDS
Branding Irons
Vifor International Inc. introduces an injectable iron
therapy and demonstrates its benefits to more
than 2,000 liver specialists with a lighthearted,
yet educational, activity. By Janet Van Vleet
44 OCTOBER 2009 EXHIBITOR MAGAZINE
When Vifor International Inc.
prepared to debut Ferinject,
an injectable iron therapy, at
the 2008 European Renal Association-
European Dialysis and Transplant
(ERA-EDT) Association Congress in
Stockholm, Sweden, the company felt
squeezed tighter than a tourniquet.
Vifor, a Zurich, Switzerland-based
pharmaceutical company, wanted to
tell the show’s estimated 7,000 kidney
specialists about its iron therapy and
how it differs from its competitors.
But the no-fun-allowed European
Federation of Pharmaceutical
Industries and Associations’

(EFPIA) restrictions regarding pre- and
at-show promotions at the show made
reaching that goal particularly diffi cult.
Unlike in the United States, where
drug manufacturers can advertise
products and their benefi ts with television
commercials and magazine ads,
European pharmaceutical companies
are not allowed to promote their products
directly to patients. In fact, the only
giveaways they were allowed to pass
out at 2008 shows were educational
items, such as charts or anatomical
models. (The EFPIA regulations have
since become even more restrictive,
and don’t allow giveaways of any kind.)
It’s also verboten for companies to make
direct comparisons between their products
and those of their competitors, a
particularly steep hurdle for Vifor, since
part of its primary objectives at the show
involved differentiating Ferinject from
other iron therapies on the market.
But standing out from the crowd
while handicapped with so many
restrictions was proving almost as
diffi cult as trying to perform brain
surgery in the dark. So the company
began brainstorming, hoping to come
up with an engaging, educational,
traffi c-building activity to help educate
the ERA-EDTA crowd about Ferinject.
Pumping Iron
Given the serious and scholastic
subject matter of the ERA-EDTA
congress — kidney disease — most
exhibitors avoid a fun-and-games aura
in their exhibits, instead erring on the
side of scientifi c and straightforward
approaches. However, during a
brainstorming session with the Swiss
branch of Dayton, NJ-based Impact
Unlimited, the company agreed on
an untraditional strategy: Create a
game that offers fun along with the
company’s key educational messages.
“We want to educate and entertain
people at the booth,” says Carsten
Nadler, Impact Unlimited’s key account
TRAFFIC BUILDER
Exhibitor: Vifor International Inc.
Creative/Production: Impact Unlimited
GmbH, Wil, Switzerland, 41-71-790-0055,
www.impactunlimited.com
Show: European Renal Association-
European Dialysis and Transplant Association
Congress, 2008
Budget: $75,000
Goals:
� Introduce Ferinject, an injectable iron
therapy, to attendees at ERA-EDTA 2008.
� Educate 10 percent of attendees on
the key differentiators of Ferinject.
Results:
� Attracted thousands of
booth visitors to its exhibit.
� Schooled at least 26
percent of attendees on the
benefi ts of Ferinject.
manager. “It was important to involve
attendees instead of only informing
them — only then does a message
have a lasting effect.”
But Vifor’s new strategy had to be
more than just fun and games. It needed
to help the company compare and
contrast Ferinject with other competing
iron therapies — without mentioning
those competitors and violating
the EFPIA restrictions. And ideally, it
had to simultaneously entertain and
involve attendees, drawing them to
the booth space, educating them about
Ferinject, and — hopefully — enticing
them to stick around after the game to
further explore the product.
Ironing Out the Kinks
Prior to Ferinject’s introduction, the
methods of getting the proper amount
of iron into patients were a mixed
bottle of pills. The older form of
injectable iron therapy delivered a
strong dose, but was hard to control.
Newer oral products offered an easier
way to control dosages, but they lacked
the strength of earlier medications.
According to Vifor, the Ferinject
brand of injectable iron represents
the proper mix of safety and effi cacy
for patients with non-dialysis chronic
kidney disease.
Stephan Gut, Vifor’s brand director
of Anemia TA, says the inspiration for
the fi nal game came from a member of
the Vifor medical team, who suggested
incorporating clothing irons as visual
metaphors for the different types of
iron therapies. That simple idea grew
into an overarching concept dubbed
the “Fabulous Iron Game.”
Impact Unlimited began developing
the in-booth activity by selecting a
different household iron to represent
each of the three types of iron
therapies. To denote the older,
higher-strength iron therapy, Impact
Unlimited chose an antique iron
made of, well, iron. It represented the
“powerful, but hard to control” iron
therapies of the past while a lightweight,
predominantly plastic travel
iron symbolized the newer product
that offered better effi cacy, but less
strength. Meanwhile, a modern iron
bearing Ferinject’s signature redand-purple
colors represented the
Ferinject therapy.
With those basic components in
hand, Impact Unlimited designed a
game station that bore more than a
passing resemblance to an ironing
board. The purple ironing-boardshaped
playing surface was digitally
printed with images of red blood
cells, while the three individual irons
were tucked into cradles along one
end of the 6-by-3-foot table.
Attached to the opposite end of the
red-and-purple branded counter was
a roughly 10-foot-tall display with an
electronic screen, topped by a sign that
owed its roots to Las Vegas and read,
“Welcome to Fabulous Iron Game.”
The screen featured a row of 20
lights running down the left side: fi ve
yellow, 10 green, and fi ve red. Figures
listed on the right side represented
EXHIBITOR MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2009 45

SIZZLE AWARDS
different levels of iron. The red lights
signifi ed iron overload, the yellow
lights represented iron defi ciency,
and the green lights — referred to
as the target zone — symbolized the
optimal iron intake.
Heavy Metal
At the show, the Fabulous Iron
Game station stood in a corner of
Vifor’s 32-by-32-foot booth, visible to
attendees approaching from the
converging aisles. Meanwhile, a
booth hostess beckoned attendees as
they neared the exhibit, encouraging
them to take part in the game.
As crowds gathered, the hostess
asked attendees if there was anyone
who would like to play the Fabulous
Iron Game. When someone volunteered,
she invited him or her to pick
up the old iron, which she explained
represented the older iron therapy,
and place it on the ironing-board
graphic near the cradled irons. Then
she asked the player to slide the iron
the entire 6-foot length of the ironing
board from tip to tip, just as if he or
she were ironing a white lab coat.
But it wasn’t as simple as steam
and press — the attendee struggled
to move the heavy iron, which seemed
to fi ght every inch. As the crowd
watched the battle, the hostess said,
“It is taking you a long time to fi nish
the task, isn’t it? That is because older
injections take hours and hours to administer.”
As the attendee attempted
to move the recalcitrant iron, the red
lights on the screen lit up, which the
hostess explained demonstrated iron
levels above the target range — a
serious safety issue for patients.
What she didn’t mention was the
fact that the two competitor irons and
the ironing board itself had been
equipped with super magnets. When
a game participant took either of those
irons from their cradles, the action
triggered the magnets, which turned
46 OCTOBER 2009 EXHIBITOR MAGAZINE
the seemingly simple prospect of
pushing an iron across the playing surface
into a practically impossible feat.
When the attendee gave up on the
antique iron, the hostess asked him
or her to try the travel iron, which she
said represented modern iron therapies.
The participant’s efforts were met
with resistance once again, and the
yellow lights lit up, showing a score
below the target zone, an effi cacy
problem, according to the hostess. As
the attendee fought to move the iron
to the target zone, the hostess said,
Attendees crowded
around the Vifor
International Inc.
booth where the
pharmaceutical company
turned mundane
household appliances
into an interactive
game to tell the story
of Ferinject, its new
injectable iron therapy.
“You’re having a diffi cult time aren’t
you? Imagine how diffi cult it is for your
patient with injections that come only
in small doses. They either have to
keep coming back for more injections,
or they still feel lethargic.”
Next, the hostess asked the participant
to try the Ferinject iron. The
attendee quickly found sliding the
red-and-purple iron to the target zone
to be as easy as scrawling a signature
on a prescription pad. The comparable
ease with which the Ferinject iron
moved often surprised the participant.
Expecting resistance after the fi rst two
irons, the attendee’s Herculean efforts
meant the red-and-purple iron, and
the player, nearly fl ew to the tip of the
board, often eliciting chuckles from
aisle-side onlookers.
Moving the Ferinject iron into the
target zone prompted the column of
green lights to glow, while the screen
displayed the text: “Congratulations
You Filled the Iron Stores Optimally.”
While many attendees broke into
applause, others clamored for the
chance to give the game a try.
The hostess thanked the attendee
who had just fi nished the game and
suggested he or she, along with the
rest of the attendees who watched the
action, step further into the exhibit to
learn more about the product and collect
a branded USB drive containing
educational materials about Ferinject.
The Target Zone
By the last day of the show, Vifor
distributed its branded USB drives to
approximately 1,800 physician attendees
who stopped to check out the
Fabulous Iron Game and took a tour of
the Ferinject exhibit — a whopping 26
percent of the doctors in attendance.
“This game did everything a traffi c
builder should do. It’s relevant; it’s
entertaining; it’s educational. And it
got people engaged with Ferinject,”
said one Sizzle Awards judge.
When the show came to a close,
Vifor’s game concept and execution
proved to be just what the doctor
ordered, according to Kevin Padden,
executive director of meeting and
communication strategies at Impact
Unlimited. “We heard feedback from
quite a few physician attendees that
they felt this simple metaphor helped
them understand Ferinject and place it
in a useful context vis-à-vis the competitive
options,” Padden says. “For a new
product with a different approach to
addressing an existing condition, that
represents an enormous success.” E
Janet Van Vleet, contributing writer;
editorial@exhibitormagazine.com