GlaxoSmithKline takes an unusually strong stance on social media for a pharmaceutical marketer with a cohesive, mobile-friendly campaign built around an Instagram photo contest designed to showcase life without pollen, helping boost brand advocacy and customer relationships for Flonase Nasal Spray. 

The brand?s Be Greater campaign asks consumers to upload photos showing how they are greater than the allergies they suffer from, such as pictures from vacations, to Instagram and Twitter using the #BeGreater24 hashtag for a chance to win a grand prize of $2,400. Flonase is also aiming to market to visitors of The Weather Channel?s app and site, where it offers a sponsored allergy tracker for pollen.

?I do think it?s remarkable to see a brand owned by a pharmaceutical ?giant? make a major play in social especially with a campaign that encourages 1:1 communication and brand advocacy,? said Tara Yavorsky, director of social at Resource/Ammirati, Columbus, OH. ?Traditionally we see pharmaceutical brands and holding companies be more conservative in their approach to social.

?I also appreciate the way that Flonase is cataloging the UGC and playing it back to consumers both through Retweets and Regrams as well as on their Be Greater digital hub where they?ve created an interactive mosaic of the #BeGreater24 content that has been shared to date. The campaign does seem to be resonating in Twitter ? it appears that they?ve seen over 7,000 tweets leveraging the #BeGreater24 hashtag in the last 31 days and received nearly 18 million impressions during that time.?

Social media component
Flonase is rolling out a supplementary social media campaign to augment its spring marketing push. The brand has a dedicated microsite, https://begreater.flonase.com/section/24hours/, where it aggregates photos uploaded with the #BeGreater24 hashtag, as well as videos from select photographers.

?Consumers living with allergies are sometimes unable to achieve everyday greatness such as; opening their windows, taking their children to soccer games and taking pets for walks,? said Jason Andre, brand manager of Flonase Allergy Relief. ?Flonase Allergy Relief helps consumers live with allergies and allows them to open their windows and hug their pets.

?The Flonase #BeGreater24 platform asks consumers to share their moments where they are able to achieve personal greatness despite their allergies,? he said. ?Consumers are already having conversation on social media regarding the allergy season and we wanted to ensure that Flonase was a part of the consumer's conversation.

?By developing a platform that could live within social media, consumers were able to interact with the brand on their terms.?

Visitors can peruse the photo gallery of allergy-free images by ?Morning,? ?Afternoon? and ?Evening,? and may even send an inspiring photo to a friend or family member as a ?greatergram.?

Once a picture has been selected, users are asked to choose a phrase to superimpose on top of the photo before receiving the ability to send via email, Facebook or Twitter.

?While it may not necessarily add something new to the social campaign landscape, it may spark new conversations for the Flonase brand,? said Kelly Pellico, vice president of mobile innovation at Millward Brown, Santa Monica, CA. ?For a brand like Flonase, which sits in a category not likely to draw significant social engagement organically, the contest appears effective in getting people to talk about and engage with the brand through social channels.?

Flonase offers a call-to-action to Instagram users via a sponsored post

Consumers can also upload their own photos via the hashtag to win a trip worth $2,400.

The campaign has seen GlaxoSmithKline experience an eight percent uptick in its consumer healthcare division for Q1, proving that the high interactivity levels are a hit with social media users.

?The marriage of weather and allergy information is smart ? it?s natural that the two be combined,? Ms. Pellico said. ?We?ve seen this before with Zyrtec?s AllergyCast app, for example. 

?Sponsored content can be an effective branding tactic; however, it?s important to ensure placement is optimized to stand out on the site. A placement higher on the site may raise more awareness among all site visitors rather than only among those more deeply engaged with its content.?

Sponsored tools
Flonase?s strategy of unveiling a sponsored tool on The Weather Channel?s digital platforms showcases how a relevant feature can yield effective cross-marketing opportunities. Consumers who visit the Weather Channel for additional information on weather may often times be concerned about high pollen count if they suffer from seasonal allergies.

By offering these visitors an allergy tracker, Flonase is able to paint itself as a helpful device for consumers with relevant material. On the desktop Weather Channel site, the tracker appears in the top panel and shows the levels of pollen, difficulty of breathing ranking and amount of mold.

It also provides a next day outlook and tells users whether conditions are expected to worsen, improve or stay the same.

The feature was first rolled out this past February for on-the-go reference to help users to The Weather Channel site and app for heightened engagement.

An indoor allergy meter also measures conditions that can trigger or increase allergens in the air, such as current temperature, thermostat temperature, outdoor humidity, and whether an air conditioner is on, resulting in conditions that are too wet or too dry (see story).

?Partnering with The Weather Channel to sponsor the allergy tracker is a smart move by Flonase, giving them supreme contextual relevance and an implied endorsement/credentials from The Weather Channel,? Ms. Yavorsky said. ?That said, after reviewing the allergy tracker on desktop, I believe they could do more with the sponsorship beyond a logo placement and adjacent banner placement.

?The content possibilities and ?fun? they could have are endless,? she said. ?Even something like gamifying the allergy tracker in partnership with Flonase could bring more entertainment to traditionally functionally led Web site and app.

?I wasn?t able to find any reference to Flonase?s involvement with the tracker in my iPhone mobile app ? which is unfortunate as so many rely on their mobile device for weather predictions.?

Final Take
Alex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York