Repositioning to better reach the elusive 45- to 50-year-old segment of potential colon cancer screening patients, Cologuard ads have replaced people singing a version of the Sinatra standard “My Way” with evocations of two more recent pop culture moments: “Game of Thrones” and “Real Housewives.” The brand’s animated delivery box, however, lives on.
The two new humorous spots, which launched this past Saturday during the NFL Playoffs, suggest that viewers “skip the drama” of colonoscopies by asking their healthcare providers about Cologuard -- or requesting the brand online.
That last aspect, again a nod to the behavior of resistant 45-50s, is also a new touch in Cologuard commercials, although the brand has been offering telehealth prescriptions for some time now.
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“It’s a great option, one we think is a perfect fit for a lot of patients, who might not have a primary care provider or the time to visit a traditional office,” Jeremy Truxal, vice president of screening marketing for Cologuard maker Exact Sciences, tells Marketing Daily.
Breaking through the stigma associated with colon cancer screening remains a brand priority.
“The are 60 million unscreened patients for colon cancer, and particularly those under 50, where we see growing incidence rates of the disease,” says Truxal. “We absolutely need to find bolder ways to communicate with them.”
The two spots are running during sports, news and entertainment programming on traditional linear TV and streaming platforms, with media buying handled by Omnicom’s OMD. The commercials are backed by what Truxal calls “a whole ecosystem of digital and social videos that riff off the two ads.”
“We didn’t just resize and recut the TV ads,” explains Kathleen Nanda, chief creative officer at Cologuard’s longtime creative agency IPG’s FCB Health New York. Instead, she says, FCB created custom social spots, such as seen here and here.
Cologuard plans to debut two additional spots focusing on other cultural tropes for the second half of the year.
“’My Way’ has been tremendously successful, but…we need to make sure we’re engaging every patient possible,” Nanda says. “We’re casting the net a little bit wider this time and having some fun with it.
“We see opportunity for humor in the healthcare space,” Nanda adds. “Getting screened for colorectal cancer has the reputation for not being so fun,” she says, so Cologuard aims to “take the stress out of something that can be anxiety-provoking.”
Stating that Cologuard wants its campaigns to be memorable, Truxal acknowledges that topping “My Way” is a high bar. “We literally had people singing about colon cancer screening,” he brags, but says that the cultural tie-ins have “surpassed ‘My Way’ in many of our testing channels. We are confident that this will break through.”
The new campaign, he says, “is putting colon cancer screening and Cologuard at the center of culture.”
Even before the current campaign, however, Cologuard had already entered into pop culture through its popular animated box, according to Nanda.
“He’s our best friend,” she says. “When you have such a powerful brand icon, with such personality and presence, you keep using that to the best of your advantage.”
She continues, “If you have an opportunity to leverage something like that, to permeate into every little nook and cranny and crevice of the market, you do not give that up.” The animated box “makes colon cancer screening approachable and comfortable. And that’s ultimately what we’re trying to do at the end of the day: to say colon cancer screening doesn’t have to be taboo.”