• by Les Luchter , 9 hours ago

If consumers are scheduling a flu or COVID shot this time of year, their pharmacy or doctor may well suggest getting other vaccines -- perhaps, if they're 50 or over, for shingles.

Why protect against shingles?

EGOT winner Viola Davis can tell you.

She’s spokesperson for GSK’s new “Shingles, Actually” educational campaign, successor to the pharma firm’s “Thrive@50” campaign, which starred Brooke Shields.

A key difference between the two celebrities is that Davis focuses on her own experience with shingles.

“The blistering rash that developed first on my face and the next time on my side was beyond painful,” Davis says in a "Shingles, Actually" video, in which she also throws out some stats (“99% of adults 50 years and older already have the virus that causes shingles inside their body. One in three people will develop shingles in their lifetime”) and advises older viewers to be their “own health advocate” by talking with their doctor or pharmacist.

“’Shingles, Actually’ focuses on real shingles stories. It spotlights celebrities, influencers, and patients who have either had shingles themselves or who have stories of people very close to them who’ve had shingles,” Abby Capobianco, GSK’s director, U.S. vaccines communications, tells Marketing Daily. “Viola really embraces the idea of embracing your age, being as authentic as you can as you age, and living as well as possible.” 

While “Shingles, Actually,” is largely a social media and earned media campaign via Syneos Health, Davis, in her new role as a GSK spokesperson has also become part of a broader GSK shingles awareness campaign -- “Shingles, The Had Way” -- which includes paid advertising (here’s a spot from last year).

“Shingles, The Hard Way” uses digital programmatic advertising on the consumer side, along with social network platforms like Doximity to reach healthcare professionals, according to Robert Johnstone, GSK’s senior director, consumer experience. Razorfish Health handles the campaign’s creative and Publicis Health Media the buying side.

“Where these two campaigns come together is, they’re deeply rooted in patient insights and research,” says Johnstone. “There is broadly a high awareness of shingles, but a low perceived understanding of personal risk. A lot of people think, ‘Maybe I’m too young, I’m too healthy, it won’t happen to me.’   You see in the content that Viola and many others wish they knew more about shingles in advance and had conversations with their provider. That’s a link between the two campaigns and how they work together.”

Indeed, anyone who goes to ShinglesTheHardWay.com now gets redirected to “What Is Shingles?,” a page that’s all-Viola -- except perhaps for the “EasyVax” scheduling tool at the bottom of the page. 

Voila, Viola!, By clicking a link to a time at the user’s preferred pharmacy, they can schedule a shingles vaccine appointment. 

Coming full circle, GSK makes Shingrix, the one and only shingles vaccine which has been heavily advertised in the past (here's one of its “Shingles Doesn’t Care” commercials).

Neither Capobianco nor Johnstone would comment on current plans for Shingrix advertising, citing the separation of unbranded and branded communications.