DUROLANE

Single injection stabilised hyaluronic acid treatment for osteoarthritis from Smith & Nephew.


Millions of people suffer from osteoarthritis worldwide. It affects the joints, typically in mid to old age.

Glidden were appointed in 2007 and have been working with Smith & Nephew globally for over five years on sales and marketing comms for DUROLANE.

www.durolane.com

The challenge

In multiple international markets with limited sales and marketing resources, to communicate directly with osteoarthritis sufferers, and those close to them, the benefits of DUROLANE, a natural stabilised hyaluronic acid (HA) single injection treatment.
To communicate with medical professionals the science which differentiates DUROLANE from other HA treatments.

The approach

To communicate in plain language with osteoarthritis sufferers the possibility of 'getting back to their active life' with DUROLANE.
To identify the 5 key messages relating to DUROLANE which can be communicated in full and summarised form to medical professionals across multiple formats and media.

Website design

Focussing on communicating directly with patients, we developed the design of the DUROLANE UK and international websites, which are now present in over 30 countries worldwide and display in over 20 languages, including Arabic and Chinese.

www.durolane.com

Online marketing

Helping to ensure that our DUROLANE websites are found when the target audience is searching, keywords have been identified and the sites optimised for organic & paid-for search. Traffic is monitored campaigns optimised on an on-going basis.

Presentation materials

We have provided a wide variety of design support and infographics for internal and external presentations given worldwide, including sales graphics, forecasting, international country statistics, medical graphics, sales materials and more . . .

Sales materials

Helping the sales team with their task of educating medical professionals, we immersed ourselves with the science behind hyaluronic acid treatments and developed a series of comparison animations capable of running on mobile and tablet devices.

Promotional material

We developed patient care cards which are given to patients following treatment.

These provide aftercare advice, reassurance and additional product information, and are now being used in many markets internationally.

Marketing communications

We have developed a wide range of marketing communications targeting the key demographic of osteothritis sufferers.

We have created many for international markets, including this example of patient-focussed communication for Italy.

Product packaging

Ensuring that local regulatory compliance issues are addressed, we have developed and produced packaging sleeves for a number of international markets in addition to the UK, including Italy, Russia, Poland and Brasil, each with in-market adaptations as required.

Workplace layout and branding

Work environments create an opportunity to reinforce a brand amongst staff & visitors.

To enliven the Clinical Therapies workplace, we created areas for formal & informal working, branding surfaces with large format 'ink' graphics developed in the USA.

Client comment . . .

"Our challenge is to grow our sales of DUROLANE in a wide range of international markets outside the USA. The strategy developed is two-fold - direct to consumer and to medical professionals.

Glidden have contributed and evolved with us over the years, they know the strict regulatory environment within which we must work, understand our corporate culture, our product and have learnt a great deal of the science behind it. We make a great team together, and they frequently go beyond the brief in suggesting new marketing ideas to educate and inform our target audiences.

Our sales have grown year on year, and Glidden have played a key part in our success."

Jeff Stonadge, International Commercial Director, Clinical Therapies, Smith & Nephew