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Mobile phones deliver free drug trial offer

Healthcare Strategist Trend Watch, August 11, 2006

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is experimenting with mobile coupons, a new way of delivering free drug samples to consumers, with the help of the San Francisco-based ipsh! marketing agency. The effort features posters in more than 20,000 doctor's offices that include a toll free number that consumers can call on their mobile phone to get a coupon for a 30 day free trial of the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor. The user shows a text message on their phone, along with a prescription from their doctor, to a pharmacist, who fills the free prescription.

To allow new patients to easily try the medication, Pfizer sought to implement a more innovative marketing campaign, said the company's marketing manager, Emad Abdelnaby, in a statement. "By incorporating mobile into our larger marketing efforts, we are able to reach a motivated audience," he said.

"We are excited to offer free trials to patients using this technology. With mobile coupons we have lower costs and significantly better measurability than we would running the same program with paper coupons. As more people adopt mobile phones into their everyday lives, we anticipate using this type of technology in a variety of campaigns."

As part of the campaign, ipsh! will provide Pfizer with key metrics including the total number of calls received and how many coupon messages were sent, to gauge the success and acceptance of the promotion.

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