Germany’s healthcare market is highly regulated. Advertising prescription drugs or products directly to the patients is strictly forbidden. This includes a variety of required regulatory barriers which separate patient information from specialized physician information. All of which is required by law.

SANOFI launched a podcast-series for German dermatologists called “REIZEND&SUBKUTAN” – German wordplay that translates to “charming” and “irritating” at the same time. This podcast is recorded on site at the biggest dermatological congresses all over the world, delivering high quality clinical content about special dermatology and immunology topics (such as atopic dermatitis) – to physicians only.

The brief was to build a multichannel approach to raise awareness for this podcast, generating traffic to the physician-only site called SANOFI CAMPUS, where the podcast is hosted behind a log-in wall. This mailing played a crucial part in the campaign.

Objective was to generate clicks on the launch episode for this podcast.

The creative idea was born from the patients’ burden-of-disease: atopic dermatitis is a skin disease that presents the following symptoms: dry skin;

severe itching; swelling and inflammation; red, brown, purple, or gray rashes; small, fluid-filled bumps or crusting; cracked skin; red, dry patches of skin; rashes that may ooze, weep clear fluid, or bleed when scratched; thickening and hardening of the skin.

In short: It feels like living with sandpaper for skin.

The medium is the message. Since HCP are flooded with mailings our main goal was to set us apart from all the conventional mail.

To generate maximum awareness for this new podcast we operated in waves: we targeted 8,000 general dermatologists with a conventional mailing. A teaser-newsletter with an audio trailer and consented opt-ins was sent out to known dermatologists preparing the target group upfront. And as very special part of the targeting, 80 dermatologists from a pre-selected audience (verified by sales) were sent this elite sandpaper mailing to stand out from the masses. As a CTA, QR codes (with tracking parameters) were printed on the mailing, leading directly to the SANOFI CAMPUS where the podcast is hosted. The headline translates to: “Doesn’t just scratch the surface” referring to the deeper and special content available with the new podcast-format comprising of on-site interviews with experts und researchers in dermatology.

Printing on real sandpaper is very unconventional. We had to look all over Germany for a silk-screening partner who was up for the task – and willing to risk a few screens in the process (silk-screen printing on sandpaper destroys the screen). Some tests were necessary to find out what grain would work best. All mailings were hand printed in 4 passes taking into consideration the drying time of each pass. We orchestrated all go-lives and sent-outs for an ideal user experience on the date of the podcast’s release.

Physicians are extremely hard to reach and to activate. From the 80 sandpaper mailings that were sent in April, 28 QR codes were scanned, leading to a response rate of 35% percent. This outperformed typical standard mailing response rates within the industry. Plus: the podcast – which is again only available after being validated as a physician – made a strong start, with opening rates well above the Sanofi benchmark.