A lasso-wielding cowgirl named The Savings Wrangler
and her ballad-singing prairie dog sidekick Dusty Pete will take over the Times Square subway station in New York City for a month starting Sept. 22.
As the latest salvo in a three-week-old
campaign from prescription drug discounter GoodRx, the subway blitz includes content all over the station, including staircase steps; Western-inspired copy like “It’s high noon for high
med prices” and “Not covered? No problem, partner”; and an above-ground extension in the form of a wraparound billboard.
Such a takeover is perhaps unprecedented for a
healthcare brand, which GoodRx CMO Ryan Sullivan attributes to the use of creative characters allowing for a “nice visual canvas,” as opposed to traditional healthcare advertising that
“follows a pretty standard playbook and protocol.”
The campaign’s wild West theme, he tells Pharma & Health Insider, is “a good metaphor for the way people
feel about the challenges of getting prescriptions at an affordable price and without a great waste of time.”
The wild West, he explains, “is a familiar refrain when people feel
that there’s a lot of disorganization. It’s confusing. It’s unpredictable."
The Savings Wrangler marks a sharp turn for GoodRx since launching its last major campaign three
years ago. Prior GoodRx ads, Sullivan explains, focused on patient experiences: “mom trying to get a kid to take medicine or sitting in a doctor’s office, or a family sitting around a
table, gardening or doing outdoor activities” Other ads, he says included “real consumer testimonies, including those of healthcare providers,” which were “meant to establish
trust and demonstrate that GoodRx was used by many people.”
The new creative direction -- executed by Ad-Like Objects, following brand strategy development by 21st Century Brand --
allows GoodRx to “open up our aperture and introduce the brand to a much wider audience” and “to find ways of cutting through a lot of noise and advertising with something visually
distinct, warm and charming,” Sullivan says. “It uses a little bit of humor. Studies show that advertising can be up to 90% more effective when invoking elements of humor in a tasteful
way.”
And so, in this :60 spot, the guitar-toting heroine on her horse bemoans “prescription prices higher than a rooster
on stilts.” She then tells Dusty Pete, popping up on her shoulder, that it’s “time we rope them in.”
Dusty Pete himself
stars in a series of five digital videos, singing a different ballad in each. The character has come to life with the help of Legacy Effects, whose past triumphs include Aflac’s duck and
Burger King’s king.
Pete will also sing with a partner -- The Savings Wrangler herself -- on audio spots.
The Savings
Wrangler campaign launched on TV during a major college football game on Aug. 30 and, a few days later, everybody who opened Hulu was greeted with GoodRx creative.
The TV streaming buy
includes Disney, Peacock, Hulu, Paramount and Tubi.
The campaign’s scope also includes linear broadcast TV, audio (Spotify, Sirius, Pandora ), radio, podcasts, paid social, display ads,
in-app ads, and more
While the campaign is designed to reach “everybody that struggles with the cost of prescription medicine,” Sullivan does acknowledge that GoodRx does
“skew slightly female, slightly Southeast, Midwestern mother of two,” whom he calls the chief household officer. That led to “dialing up certain things that would appeal
especially” to her.
Hence, the casting of a female in the lead role.
“The idea of the prescription ecosystem being like the Wild west is fairly timeless, and we’re
going to stick with that for the forseeable future,” Sullivan adds, noting that the Wrangler and Pete are seen as “a long-term investment creatively. Our intent was to build a fairly
timeless set of characters that add to our brand in a permanent way.”