4Lamisil: “Digger.” An animated dermatophyte drove Novartis

’s
Best
The days of 350- million-dollar TV spending may be gone, but top DTC
campaigns must still be tied to unique insights. And, as Deborah Dick-Rath
finds, the best are. Here’s the top 10, based on an informal survey of
industry leaders (Go to mmm-online.com for the commercial reels):
s
A
d
C
DT r
r
e
v
E
1
Vytorin
This ca : “Two Kinds
of Cho
age mpaign fr
les
Everyo ncy DDB gar om Merck an terol.”
nered t
ne rem
d
he mos its
ember
visuals
e
t votes
a food that matche d the dual
.
d
w
and mo ith a person
,
comme st responden
t
n
succin ted on how s
t
c
benefi tly tied bran his
t.
d to
4
Lamisil: “D
igge
animated d r.” An
er
drove Novar matophyte
tis toenail
fungus med
ic
billion-dolla ine to a
r
It was an ad franchise.
that
everyone re
m
perhaps un embered—
comfortably
so. It was al
so
with “legs” a campaign
th
attention on at even won
the talk show
s.
5
Zelnorm:
“Tummies.” Just
as music helped
tboy
iti
ar
Cl n soar, Fa
rtis’
va
No
ed
lp
Slim he
t.
ou
d
an
st
ug
dr
S
IB
l
cia
er
m
The com
owed
provocatively sh
their
ng
isi
ra
rs
suffere
ndshirts to reveal ha gy
olo
om
pt
m
sy
d
lettere
.
on their tummies
.
et
rg
fo
Hard to
6
Spiriva: “Elephant.”
This current campaign
was another one to
leverage anthropomorphic
imagery to quickly
communicate an idea. In this
case, Draftfcb integrated
the Elephant into the COPD
campaign for impactful
effect and top results at
Boehringer-Ingelheim.
2
Claritin
:“
A true D Blue Skies.”
TC class
ic,
com
Ella Fitz plete with an
gerald a
nd Irvin
Berlin a
g
cc
campaig ompaniment. T
h
n was on
to be com
e of the is
fi
across m pletely integrat rst
ed
u
with its ltiple channels
“fr
clouds. C ee breathing”
o
Common ngrats to Ogilv
y
H
wide-ra ealth Worldwid
nging te
e
’s
am of
experts.
8
Lipitor:
“
Flop.” P Belly
fi
blockbu zer’s
ster
drug ha
s
campaig had many
n
the yea s over
rs—but
respond
our
e
us that nts reminded
t
circa 20 he “Belly Flop,”
to offer 03, seemed
p
absolut atients
io
exercise n if diet and
work. just didn’t
3
Zoloft: “Dot.” This innovative
campaign garnered many
votes for its unique,
empathetic and influential art
n
direction. This beautiful campaig
forever destigmatized a disease.
at
As Adam Levine, SVP Strategy
Deutsch, comments, “It created
a new standard for what DTC
could be.”
7
an
Nasonex: “Bee.” Using people
ind
animated bee to rem
allergies was
about hay fever and
ave voice of
su
the
clever—giving him
s
wa
s
era
nd
Antonio Ba
hannel
brilliant. This multi-c
the
all
d
lle
pu
campaign
tion
sight, sound and mo
y.
ilit
rab
mo
levers of me
9
10
Lunesta:
“Luna Moth.”
Respondents
cited this campaign’s overpo
wering and ubiquitous imager
y,
and its ability to connect
a
“lunar” creature for sleeple
ssness offers a bit of mnemoni
c
to the brand name. We can
’t
imagine it with an owl.
Boniva: “Sally
Field.” This celebritye
based campaign’s linkag
d
an
between brand
spokesperson directly
aligned with Boomer
women who remembered
Field from “Gidget” to
“Norma Rae.” As Abelson
notes,
­Taylor SVP Jay Carter
job.”
the
for
son
per
ht
rig
e
“Th
Historical Ads provided by Competitrack, a
full-service company that tracks advertising creative and
spending in the US and abroad. (www.competitrack.com)