Leo Burnett sets up drugs arm
Ad agency Leo Burnett Warszawa has launched a pharmaceutical division to capitalize on the potential growth of the health care market in Poland.
The new branch, called madical, will specialize in promoting and advertising medical products in the country. It will be the first agency of its kind in Poland, promoting prescription drugs and advertising over-the-counter (OTC) medicines along with beauty and health care products.
According to Polish law, only OTC medicines can be advertised, but prescription drugs can be promoted in professional publications.
The agency said that with madical's industry knowledge and Leo Burnett's advertising and marketing know-how, the new division will give its clients more competitive clout in the pharmaceutical market.
"The core of madical's team consists of people who worked for the ad agency ASC Design," said Jaroslaw Ziebinski, managing director of Leo Burnett Warszawa. ASC Design had a history of servicing pharmaceutical companies, which generated over 70% of ASC's income. Among their clients were companies such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo Wellcome, Eli Lilly and SmithKline Beecham Polska.
Madical's general director, Lukasz Artecki, and founder of ASC Design, said that with potential growth in the pharmaceutical market, setting up madical made sound business sense.
While ad budgets generally have remained in the doldrums during the past two years, the pharmaceutical sector's budgets have increased. Ad spending in the sector grew to zl. 400 million ($91 million) last year from zl. 275 million ($70.5 million) in 1999.
He added that the percentage of OTC medicines on the drug market is growing. In Poland they make up about 20%, while in the West it's closer to 40%.
Robert Rosiek is a medical marketing manager at the Polish branch of U.K.-based pharmaceutical giant SmithKline Beecham Polska, recently merged with Glaxo Wellcome. Rosiek said there are hundreds of pharmaceutical companies on the market and most of their products belong to the OTC sector.
"While advertising OTC's products isn't very difficult," Rosiek said, "dealing with medical marketing aimed at doctors is possible only if there is professional, highly qualified knowledge." They need to be familiar with the market for such medicines, he added. "After all, the market for Paracetamol and Coldrex (pain killers) is a different one than for antibiotics."
However, Alina Koscianek-Bogon, brand manager for Switzerland's Roche, was more skeptical of the venture. "I would be a little resistant to start cooperation with a company that deals with clients from the same sector," Koscianek-Bogon said. "Such a narrow specialization restricts the (agency's) way of thinking."
Koscianek-Bogon said she couldn't see the point of a specialized company. Ads for OTC products should be governed by the same rules that manage fast-moving consumer goods, she added.
But Ziebinski said the OTC pharmaceuticals market demands knowledge of medical marketing. "In this case communication has to be addressed to millions of consumers but also to professionals doctors, nurses, nutritionists and pharmacists who strongly influence purchase decisions," he said.
