Grading Pharma's Use of YouTube (A First Look)

When you think of YouTube, the first things that might come to your mind are satirical home-grown clips created with the purpose of entertaining the masses - or with no purpose at all, as the case might often be. When a few key pharmaceutical executives think of YouTube, different things come to mind: an integrated communication strategy; a broadcast medium for noteworthy corporate productions; a news channel reporting advances in development; a soapbox for corporate responsibility; or a method of communicating helpful information to patients on disease, drug safety, or treatment compliance.

While the pharma industry experiments with social media, several pharma companies are maintaining dedicated YouTube channels, among them Pfizer (PfizerNews, PfizerEurope), Johnson & Johnson (JNJHealth), GlaxoSmithKline (GSKVision), and Boehringer (BoehringerIngelheim).

Let's examine Pfizer: the PfizerNews channel reveals around 20+ videos, just over 100 subscribers, and nearly 83,000 channel views. The PfizerEurope channel similarly has a handful of videos with 67 subscribers (as of today). Both channels were created in 2009. These numbers seem impressive for a pharmaceutical giant; its videos are clearly reaching a large audience. But what value is the company getting out of it? Better yet, what value are its patients getting out of it?

Taking a look at another giant with a more successfully managed YouTube presence, you'll find that Johnson & Johnson's JNJHealth channel boasts well over 3,000 subscribers in less than three years' time. Upon entering you will be made aware of J&J's transparent strategy for social media ("videos to promote a better understanding of health") and can watch a video discussing the opportunity to use "social media for social good," stressing the value of relationship building through social media.

J&J's social media vision is not just fluff. A few of its channel playlists focus mainly on J&J's philanthropic activities, but one of the channel's playlists stood out to me as ingenious. It provides helpful information for caregivers of patients living with difficult diseases, such as cancer, multiple systems atrophy, and alzheimer's. This is useful social media for patients and their loved ones.

If I were to compare both companies' channels, Pfizer would receive a grade of D while J&J would be awarded a B+. Who gets the A?

Janssen, the mental health pharmaceutical company, with its LivingWithADHD channel, gets the A. (Note: Janssen is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson). In just 7 short months, the channel has roped in 124 subscribers and boasts over 43,000 channel views. This channel is unique because although it was created and is maintained by a pharma company, its focus and purpose lies in a particular segment of the population living with ADHD, not on the company itself. It embraces the movement in the industry towards customer segmentation. The channel's main "A Day in the Life" video has been viewed nearly 140,000 times and is linked to the company's Living with ADHD website: http://www.livingwithadhd.co.uk/. Also contributing to Janssen's grade of A is its fearless transparency. It allows any users to post comments on its videos, unlike many other pharma channels - even comments such as "drug company propoganda posing as informational video."

Recent survey results from Ogilvy find that 74% of pharma execs anticipate an increase in spend on digital activities in the coming year. I'm left wondering what percentage of "digital spend" will be directed towards YouTube. As the role of the patient changes to be much more proactive and self-informed, pharma companies need to come up with more interactive ways of reaching patients not only to promote drugs, but to help with the overall management of disease. At the same time, they need to anticipate abuse from commenters who are critical of "Big Pharma" and seek to manage this commentary rather than disallow it.