• by Les Luchter , 3 hours ago

Two months after launching an awareness campaign informing consumers that there are different kinds of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) treatments to prevent HIV, GSK’s ViiV Healthcare has debuted another effort, this time zeroing in on one option dear to its heart: long-lasting injections.

ViiV, the only pharma firm focused solely on HIV/AIDS products, launched the first such injectable, Apretude, four years ago. Now, others are on the market, such as Gilead Sciences’ Yeztugo, which debuted via a branded ad campaign from Digitas in March.

The idea is that injections, whether on a bimonthly basis like Apretude or twice yearly like Yeztugo, are a more reliable method to prevent HIV than taking a pill every day.

ViiV’s new awareness campaign, titled “Do It For Future You,” features three videos showing young adults in everyday activities, with the message to “make a choice that fits your life” by talking to their doctor about long-lasting HIV prevention. (See the spots here, here and here).

“Because of HIV stigma, sometimes [healthcare] providers aren't starting the conversation,” Bithiah Lafontant, ViiV’s head of enterprise communications, tells Marketing Daily. “We want to get as many people as we can taking that initiative with their providers.”

While groups disproportionately affected by HIV -- "Black women, gay men, mostly communities of color in the South” -- remain a “priority focus” for ViiV, Lafontant says, “this campaign is broadly inclusive because anybody could contract HIV if you’re not on PrEP and  having comdom-less sex.”

The campaign, she says, “is intended to be general so anybody can see themselves in it and feel empowered to talk to their health providers.”

The videos are running on YouTube, social media and a dedicated website, with supportive paid ads on digital.  

There will also be influencer marketing and out-of-home -- running in cities like Atlanta, “priority markets because they are communities where the rates of HIV are highest and the need is the greatest,” Lafontant says, and around Anaheim in mid-September to coincide with the annual U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS.

ViiV’s creative agency is Versus, with GCI Health handling media buying.

Lafontant sees “Do It For Future You” as a long-term “umbrella…because the idea of ‘the choices you make today shaping your tomorrow’ (provides) lots of opportunities for different initiatives that we can develop in the months and potentially years to come….We want people to feel comfortable starting conversations, asking the right questions and making sure that they are involved with their healthcare decisions.”

Despite efforts by ViiV, Gilead and others to increase awareness and use of PrEP, Lafontant acknowledges that usage levels still fall at about 25% of the people who can benefit from the medication. But she says there’s been “some greater diversity of who's getting on PrEP,” albeit not enough.

“The majority of the people who could benefit from PrEP are Black or Latino, the communities that have the highest burden of HIV, but they are also the folks least likely to be prescribed PrEP,” LaFontant says. “So we still have a lot of work to be done.”