Cetaphil spending a million pounds this spring

[David Pascoe]

According to GALDERMA BACKS CETAPHIL WITH £1M SPRING CAMPAIGN, Cetaphil is embarking on a £1m UK Spring promotional campaign.

Galderma is investing £1 million in a consumer communications campaign for its Cetaphil cleansing and moisturising range this year.

Starting this spring, the campaign aims to raise awareness of the brand for skin conditions such as eczema, acne, rosacea, psoriasis and dry and sensitive skin.

In addition to PR activity, the campaign will include a new pharmacy education guide plus consumer information leaflets and samples for pharmacy customers. Galderma is also running radio advertising to promote the availability of the range in Lloyds pharmacy.

A new website for the brand has been launched to offer information and practical advice to sufferers of skin conditions.

The website also offers consumers the chance to join the Cetaphil members club and receive free product samples.
Galderma
Tel: 01923 208950
http://www.cetaphil.co.uk

Cetaphil have a similar country domain in Australia and the UK and offer small samples if you request them online. I have requested them in the past to see what they send and it was indeed a very small sample.

Look out for radio ads promoting Lloyd's Pharmacy.

[starbuck]

While every bit of awareness helps, and it's good there are products out there to support these skin conditions, every time I see something like this I can't help but wish that a company like Galderma would put their resources into things like real cures or research. I wonder why they chose to only run them in the UK.

[David Pascoe]

Galderma is a large company so no doubt they have promotional efforts that look at country segments on their own. I wouldn't be surprised if other country marketing groups within the company had their own campaigns planned also.

Galderma is the major supporter of the national rosacea society and has been for some years, so that is one reason to have faith in them as a company.

Given that they own metrogel, oracea, cetaphil and are developing sansrosa they are certainly a heavyweight in the rosacea industry.

I wish that Galderma had a public face for sufferers of conditions like rosacea (indeed acne, psoriasis, dermatitis and other conditions are in their portfolio too) so that we could get a feel for the company - where they are going, what they are up to, what drives them etc. All we get to see is boring corporate web sites and glossy product pages - we need a Galderma rosacea blog for starters !

[David Pascoe]

I wonder why they chose to only run them in the UK.

According to Cetaphil: a case study in community brand building Galderma has undertaken large Cetaphil campaigns recently in the US. A trip to the Bahamas for your trouble sounds rough

This campaign reflects a prolonged and successful strategy by Galderma in their promotion of the Cetaphil brand through consumers and community. Indeed, the heavy weight pharma company has leaned heavily on viral media, social networking and other direct to consumer forums in the promotion of the star brand. The crux of this approach is the “Cetaphil, Comfortable in My Skin” program which ran last summer. Using Brickfish, a social networking tool, Galderma asked women in North America to interactively participate by completing the sentence “I feel comfortable in my skin when…” Entries were judged and the winners were awarded a Kate Spade bag packed with Cetaphil products and sent to the Bahamas for a get-a-way. This tremendously successful program built on the brand’s modest, relateable and reliable image and paralayed into a community forum for promotion

.

The article mentions other campaigns Galderma have used for Cetaphil and commends them for trying to market directly to consumers through social media channels.

[Aurelia]

Well, David, it looks as if the big Galderma push is underway!

Our Cathy saw their new Rosacea Facts Website on her local TV station and has posted the link in a new thread:
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=2050

http://www.rosaceafacts.com

On the plus side, they list a wide range of proven rosacea treatments, not only their own products, and they are trying to make it easier for Americans to find local dermatologists.

On the down side, to get more information, people are encouraged to "sign up for more support" and "sign up for updates, tips and information". I wonder what they are offering as "Real-time rosacea relief"? You submit info on symptoms, etc., and will receive "Timely advice tailored to your life", "Treatment tips, tools and support", along with "Information about treatment options and savings", which will presumably be the usual discount vouchers and special offers. I wonder if they will take that further afield by negotiating special deals with non-Galderma firms?

Under "More Rosacea Resources" they provide links to Rosacea.org, the NRS's site (a popular first-choice for many rosaceans) and RosaceaNet, which the American Academy of Dermatology set up a while ago but which is rarely cited by anyone, as far as I am aware.

I wonder how much of this is specifically a matter of making money and how much has to do with disquiet over the number of self-appointed "rosacea experts" pushing products and treatments on the net, often on the back of supposedly educational material that is often biased and/or nonsensical?

Kind regards,

Aurelia

[CrabbyCathy]

Here, I'll sign up and see what type of emails I get. I noticed way after I posted it here that it was run by Galderma, but their products are nice, and they have very basic facts on the site, so why not? (I said to myself )