‘Ads on TV news as a genre help drive brand reach or saliency’

Talking in the context of the recent #HerHealthMatters campaign, Saibal Biswas, Head of Marketing, Partnerships and PR at MediBuddy discusses the brand’s marketing strategies aimed at creating a new category with a consumer-centric approach. 

What was the idea behind the #HerHealthMatters campaign?

MediBuddy's campaign #HerHealthMatters aimed at raising awareness and encouraging women to prioritize their health. Research shows that women often juggle with so many responsibilities that they tend to ignore certain warning health conditions and signs such as hair loss, irritability, weight gain or chronic fatigue. Men, too, tend to be unaware of their health risks and underlying conditions. We thought that as a brand which aims to be the top healthcare platform in the country, we should utilise these insights to create a campaign. Women’s Day provided us with the perfect occasion to launch and extend it over a month ahead.  Through this campaign, we are urging men to take care of the women in their lives and be aware of these symptoms. The message to women is to take action by either consulting a doctor or getting a health check-up done. We are urging more women to be sensitive by caring for themselves first so that they can take care of others in the family. 

Which mediums were used to amplify the campaign? 

We look at the footprints of our TG to amplify any campaign. Our TG, which includes both men and women, has a significant digital footprint today. They are engaging a lot more with the medium, and so we decided to consciously use a lot of social media channels for this campaign. The other mediums we considered were PR and the contextual channels including the corporate base where we provide many wellness programs. 

How do you allocate your advertising budget across different mediums? 

It depends on where our consumer is likely to be present at that moment and when he will be receptive to the information or the message.  The budget is allocated based on the marketing objective which varies across different campaigns.   For instance, when we need to gain brand recognition and mass reach, we go heavy on TV advertising with celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan. 

Today, Connected TV is being used as one of the mediums to reach premium audiences. Does MediBuddy look at CTV as a growth driver?

We have advertised in the connected TV space. The choice, however, is determined by the objective of that particular campaign. Targeting a premium audience through CTV may not be the best approach because most of them would have taken subscriptions where they will not be exposed to ads at all. But if a brand is trying to build on a TV campaign and wants to address people who have shifted to connected TV and OTT platforms, then it makes sense to use it in the media mix.  And so, once again, it has to be worked backwards from the consumer and the objective.  Budgets constraints may also be another limiting factor affecting the decision. 

Do you think brands should advertise more on TV as compared to other platforms, particularly on the news genre?

I am a firm believer in choosing mediums depending on what the objective of the brand at that point of time is and where the audience is most likely to be receptive to the information. We, as a brand, are in the category creation stage right now where we have to explain to a consumer and be on top of his mind. The TV news audience is mostly the male viewers. For us, it makes sense to advertise in this genre when the objective of the campaign is to drive brand reach or saliency or to gain market share. 

We have often seen that news TV is considered as a preferred medium during economic slowdowns. How do you look at it?

From an efficiency perspective, the cost of a news channel is lower. However, because it is not an interactive medium, the audience is not as engaged while listening to news.  Therefore, it makes sense to advertise on the TV News genre if building brand salience or gaining market share is the objective of the campaign.  

Which mediums do you use to increase your brand visibility and why? 

For MediBuddy, it will be the social media channels and other Digital mediums. We have also done a bit of OOH but that is mostly for the corporate TG around tech parks, etc. Right now, we are in the category creation space where the objective is to drive behavioural change. We are building the brand and the category.  And so, we are focused on identifying people who would be most willing to move from offline to online, and targeting them with video-heavy formats that allow us to tell a story. This is why Digital and social channels become relevant for us. 

Apart from this campaign, what other innovative marketing strategies does MediBuddy utilize to reach the masses and increase its revenue?  

We operate in a need-based category. As a brand we can't create the need for healthcare but what we can most certainly do is shift the existing need in a particular sector of healthcare to online in a way that also benefits the customer. This will include needs such as doctor consulting, labs, medicine delivery or surgery care. We can either make it more convenient, or more accessible, or more affordable for the user, and also assure him or her of the quality of care or assistance we provide. The theme of our brand campaigns, therefore, has to be built around all the occasions where a consumer is present today or wherever he has a need for any healthcare measures. We use all such occasions that are related to health to create awareness about the availability of an online service. 

For instance, there are lots of WHO designated days that are observed to create awareness and spark people’s interest in leading a healthy lifestyle. I think most of our marketing calendar also revolves around some of those days where it's very important for us as an organization to ensure that people are focused on preventive healthcare measures. Today, everyone is focused on giving something to a consumer after the event has happened, such as medicines, but we are also very keen on owning the communication for preventive healthcare. We, as a brand, are responsible and are also trying to own special occasions and properties like Diwali which consumers can use to give gifts of good health to friends and family members. While we are a healthcare brand, we also want to ensure that we remind consumers to be healthy so that serious health conditions can be avoided even before they arise.