Pfizer Asks Shops to Plot Next Step for Viagra

In the six years since its introduction in the U.S., Pfizer's Viagra has become as synonymous with the treatment of erectile dysfunction as Xerox is with copiers.But with the September introduction of GlaxoSmithKline's Levitra and the FDA's approval of Eli Lilly and Icos' Cialis in November, Pfizer no longer has the $1 billion-plus category to itself. Its game plan is two-fold, sources said: evolve Viagra's positioning beyond that of trusted category leader and expand its user base to men younger than 40. Last week, the client held ad strategy sessions with the brand's incumbent agency, Omnicom Group's Cline Davis & Mann in New York, and several roster shops: WPP Group's Berlin Cameron/ Red Cell (which works on Zyrtec), Interpublic Group's McCann-Erickson (Bextra) and Omnicom's Merkley + Partners (Lipitor). With an estimated $90 million in media spending from January to October last year—and U.S. sales of $1 billion in 2003—awareness is not Viagra's problem. Instead, the agencies, which will make creative presentations the second week of April, must show how they would reinforce Viagra's positioning and where they would take the ad message next. "The [Viagra] brief is deliberately vague," one source said. "Basically, they're saying there's an opportunity to expand the category and asked agencies to come up with ideas targeting 'men who need it.' In baseball that's called a hanging curveball. Shops are expected to somehow hit it out of the park." The newest entrant in the category, Cialis, is Viagra's strongest challenger, said Sandy Keziah, president of marketing consultancy Kindred/ Keziah in Boulder, Colo. "Viagra's in an interesting situation, because it created the erectile-dysfunction category," Keziah said. "But because Cialis lasts for up to 36 hours, it has reinvented the category almost overnight." (Viagra works for up to four hours.) Cialis launched its ad campaign during the Super Bowl. (Its media budget is undisclosed, and Nielsen Monitor-Plus estimates are not yet available.) The work, from Grey Global Group's Grey Worldwide in New York, touts the drug's long-lasting effect and positions Cialis as the choice of monogamous couples who want to be spontaneous (the tag is, "Will you be ready?"). Since its launch, Cialis has logged $3 million in sales, according to NDCHealth in Atlanta. Levitra to date has had $30 million in sales, according to NDCHealth. The drug is backed by a fraction of the ad budget that Pfizer puts behind Viagra: about $25 million from January to October last year.Jonathan Asher, president of New York-based brand consultancy Dragon Rouge, suggested Viagra could try to target men who may not think they need it. "[Pfizer] needs to get them in the frame of mind where they could consider the benefit of taking such a thing," he said. "Sort of like what the analgesic category has done: You may have only a mild headache, but boy, if you take this product, what a difference." Pfizer executives would not comment on the brief, but Viagra U.S. team leader Janice Lipsky noted one benefit the company might tout: "One thing we can do is to convey how quickly it takes effect. It can start working in 20 minutes in about half the men who take it, which is in keeping with the way men have sex." (Pfizer research shows that sexually active men tend to have intercourse within an hour of their "initial thought.")One recent Cline Davis spot for Viagra shows a man walking into his office with a newfound confidence that has his co-workers trying to figure out what's different about him. For Levitra, WPP's Quantum Group in Parsippany, N.J., has taken a tough, sports-guy stance, featuring Mike Ditka in one spot and showing a guy throwing a football through a backyard tire in another. A client rep said New York-based Pfizer expects to be in production on new work by early summer.

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Pfizer Asks Shops to Plot Next Step for Viagra

Kathleen Sampey

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Kathleen Sampey