• by Les Luchter , Staff Writer, Yesterday

But when women’s health pharma company Organon aimed to “help normalize the conversations around contraception,” it went in a distinctive direction: a campaign with romance novelist Hannah Brown.

Brown, after rising to fame as the lead in “The Bachelorette” and then co-winning “Dancing With the Stars,” entered The New York Times bestseller list two years ago with her first romance novel, “Mistakes We Never Made.”

This summer, Organon published “Lessons in Love and Ballroom,” a Brown-authored short story in which one female character admits to forgetting to take her daily birth control pill, and another replies that she no longer faces that challenge because her doctor “recommended a long-acting, reversible option.” To which woman #1 decides to also consult with her doctor.

The story itself mentions neither Organon nor its long-lasting birth control product Nexplanon. But in an “Author’s Note” following the story, Brown relates that she’s partnered with Organon whose implant goes in the arm, not the uterus, to provide up to five years of reversible pregnancy prevention.

Brown used her TikTok and Instagram channels, which have over 4 million followers, to drive traffic to the story (see examples here and here), with Organon backing that up through paid media, owned media and earned media.

The results have been impressive, according to Janine Colavita, head of the company’s product communications and corporate reputation. While the story itself garnered 31,000 readers, much more than an anticipated 12,000, Colavita pointed to over 3.5 million social media impressions -- and especially to media interviews with Brown that have enabled Organon’s birth control message to get into outlets like OK and US Weekly that “we typically wouldn’t have been able to get into with just a sole birth control message.”

Those interviews again, aimed to help readers feel comfortable about discussing contraception, “and introduce Nexplanon to highly relevant audiences and brand-new environments,” Colavita said.

Brown, who is not a Nexplanon user, will probably not be writing any more short stories on Nexplanon’s behalf, but will continue functioning as a “birth control ambassador,” Colavita explained, “being able to insert these conversations into not only romance storytelling, but everyday life, and to have them with your healthcare providers.”

The campaign, she said, is “getting more recognition and awareness about various birth control options,” noting that Brown had indicated in several media interviews that her friends had never even heard about Nexplanon.

The product has been around for some 13 years, though, and has recently received FDA approval expanding its effectiveness window from three to five years. 

Brown’s following and romance fiction aren’t the only way Organon has been getting the word out about Nexplanon, though.

“This campaign builds on the cultural insight behind Organon’s romantasy marketing campaign,” Colavita said.

What is romantasy?

“Romantasy is more along the lines of humans and fantasy creatures, while romance is all humans,”

For example, one of the ads in the romantasy campaign  seemed to hint that the male was a vampire, while the other showed a more traditional partner. But the message of both ads was clear: “Whatever your fantasy, prevent pregnancy with Nexplanon.”

The romantasy marketing was more of a traditional paid ad effort than the Brown program. It launched last year and is continuing. 

“I have a 19-year-old daughter who does not read any romantasy, but does read romance,” Colavita related. “Being in both aspects of the sort of stories that talk about relationships and sex is really covering the whole target population.”

The romantasy campaign lifted Nexplanon conversation by 33% in comparison to previous creative executions.  

“We’re continuing to find novel ways to insert discussions about birth control in areas that feel natural but also authentic to the topic at hand,” Colavita said. “It’s very rare that you’re reading books, of seeing [other} information about relationships and sex, and then seeing information about birth control. “We want to tie those conversations together in as many areas as we can."