In India, family physicians, diabetologists and endocrinologists all treat patients with diabetes so were included in our TG. Doctors with busy practices were prioritised.

In India, consumer communication of pharma/ health and wellness products that do not come under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act or the Food Safety and Standards Act, is then primarily self-controlled by an industry body – the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). Some aspects of doctor communication even in non-prescription categories continue to be guided by the Ethics Policy of the Medical Council of India. Even with this focus on self-governance, as with all medical communication, it is important to be clear, precise, and not mislead the doctor with regards to the product.

The Illustrated Guide to Living with Diabetes in India (LWDI), India’s #1 book on self-managing diabetes was sold through bookstores. They wanted to increase sales and reach the masses. We recommended reaching diabetics through their primary point of contact: The doctor. Diabetic patients have several queries and doctors have no time to answer them. So, doctors should love this book. But doctors had no time to meet us either. Because, in India, there is only one doctor per 1,700 people. So we set up fake patients over a 3-day SMS activity that showed doctors how they could save time–by simply wasting their time!

The campaign resulted in a 30% response rate from doctors, with response = suitable time for an appointment! And 50% of doctors agreed to recommend, display and sell the book, resulting in a new sales channel and a 63% revenue increase, in just two months.

Marketing objective: To get doctors in Indian metros to prescribe or recommend the book to all their diabetes patients.

Family physicians, diabetologists and endocrinologists all have patients with diabetes. Hence, we included all of them in our target audience. Doctors with busy practices–hence, with even lesser time to answer the queries of their patients–were prioritised. However, these doctors meet over 20 medical representatives daily and hence, grabbing their attention for a diabetes book–not seen as a core part of their practice–and demonstrating the value of prescribing this category within seconds, was the key communication objective.

We showed doctors how they could save time–by simply wasting their time, with “THE FAKE PATIENT PROJECT”–a 3 day SMS (text message) activity with doctors, targeting weekends when they are less accessible.

After getting phone numbers of doctors from the Indian Medical Association (IMA) database, we found the most common names in the localities they practiced, e.g., Akash in Colaba, Mumbai; Sneha in Juhu, Mumbai. These became our fake patients for the respective doctors.

For 2 days, we kept SMSing diabetes queries to these doctors. If we received a reply, we thanked them with yet another query after 30 mins. If ignored, we simply sent more queries.

Over 4 weekends, 2,000 doctors across 3 Indian cities–Mumbai, Pune and Chennai–received over 5000 SMSes. After 3 fake messages, we sent them an SMS revealing our true identity along with the promise of a free copy and a request for an appointment.

When we received an appointment from doctors, we used the opportunity to promote our book and create a new sales channel via doctors.

30% of doctors replied to our final text message with an appointment. When our representatives met them, 50% of doctors agreed to recommend, display and sell the book. While we were expecting recommendations, we did not even dare to hope that doctors would be willing to sell the book at their clinics. This resulted in a new sales channel and a whopping 63% increase in revenues, in just two months.

Eventually, this became the only mechanism required for communication to doctors, and doctors became the central channel for sales of this guide surpassing sales in bookstores across the country. Thus, this activity created a mass category of the diabetes self-management guide where none existed in the country even a year back. Or as we like to put it, our fake patients were able to make some real sales.

The book solves a very real problem for doctors and not just patients: Diabetic patients have several queries on managing diabetes. Doctors have no time to answer these queries but can’t refuse either–now doctors can recommend this guide to answer all queries, ensuring effective diabetes management.

However, doctors don’t believe books are core to their practice and turn a deaf ear to this solution. Thus, we needed to bring out this problem for doctors in a very real manner.

We showed doctors how they could save time, by simply wasting their time, with THE FAKE PATIENT PROJECT, an SMS-led activity. Though smart phone penetration in India is growing, a large part of our TG–elderly patients with diabetes– yet use their phones mainly for voice/texting. We realised that patients in India often SMS queries to doctors–doctors give out their mobile numbers to patients for emergencies but may not have the patient’s number saved. We used this insight to create fake patients that harassed doctors on their mobiles with constant queries.

The Illustrated Guide to Living with Diabetes in India (LWDI), India’s #1 book on self-managing diabetes was sold through bookstores and online. They wanted to increase sales and reach the masses. We recommended reaching more diabetics through their primary point of contact: The doctor. Diabetic patients have several queries and doctors have no time to answer them. So, doctors should love this book.

However, doctors have no time to meet us. Because in India, there is only one doctor for 1,700 people. Hence, we had to reach doctors and let them know how the book could save their time.