Pharmacies are at the centre of the healthcare system in communities and small towns in Spain. They are the first port of call for advice and are crucial not only to everyday life but also for disease prevention and management. However, they are also small businesses whose owners face the same sales and marketing issues as any other SME. To grow their businesses, they need tips that will help them improve service, have better window displays, or have a more pleasant interior, etc.

So, based on these two insights we created a world just for them. A town called Buenavista (‘good sight’ – inspired in the product) Pharmaville (a play on the popular Facebook App Farmville to increase engagement). Buenavista Pharmaville would be a place where pharmacists could learn to take better care of their customers’ eye care needs and at the same time take care of their business.

We developed a gamification platform where pharmacies could compete either as a group or individually with the aim of growing their pharmacy.

The game was structured on 5 levels, each one related to a specific eye care theme. In addition, within each level, participants had to take care of the patients who came to their pharmacy. If they did it correctly, they got extra points that would push them up the ranking. The winners were awarded with further training.

We also developed communication materials for the sales delegates, as their visits are the main communication channel with the pharmacists. We created an explanatory leaflet and a video tutorial so that they could engage and sign up pharmacists during their regular visits.

This campaign generated very positive feedback from the pharmacists and allowed the company to build strong relationships by using a completely new approach with an innovative and interactive tool that would help pharmacists in their day-to-day work.

Among all the participating pharmacists and pharmacies, more than 40,000 points were obtained on the platform. In addition, a high value database was generated for Novartis with highly qualified leads from pharmacies with a proven interest in the eye care category and the wide range of Systane® products.