Introducing the Outcomes Creativity Index
The Outcomes Creativity Index (OCI) represents a ranking of pharmaceutical companies and brands according to creativity and innovation. The OCI is an aggregate score-based creative achievement representing these leading U.S. and international healthcare award shows: The Outcomes LLC/Med Ad News Manny Awards; Cannes Lions; LIA: Health & Wellness; Clio Health; The One Show; The MM&M Awards; The Global Awards; and The Creative Floor Awards. Every year in the October edition of Med Ad News, the top 10 pharma companies and top 10 prescription brands will be presented from tabulating the results of the OCI scoring system.
The OCI scoring system is based on aggregate points for the measurement period by brand and by company based on results from the aforementioned eight healthcare communications award shows. The time period for the inaugural OCI rankings begins with the April 2018 Manny Awards and ends with the results from the June 2019 Cannes Lions festival.
Med Ad News worked with Tim Hawkey, CCO at Area 23, an FCB Health Company, to develop the creativity index. According to Hawkey, “It doesn’t take a brave agency to do something special, it takes a brave client. And that’s even truer in the pharma space. Our clients face a lot of pressures to get results without rocking the boat. So when a pharma marketer does do something breakthrough, and when a pharma company creates an environment where that kind of work is encouraged, I think it needs to be recognized. There are a lot of award shows out there, but they are designed to recognize the agencies. It’s the agency folks that attend the shows, accept the trophies and publicize the win. There isn’t one of them that thoroughly and accurately celebrates the pharmaceutical clients who are embracing creativity and innovation. By looking at a cross section of all the top award shows, it quickly becomes clear who the marketers and companies are that are truly committed to creativity.”
Regarding the selection of the award shows represented in the OCI, Hawkey says, “The Outcomes Creativity Index represents the top healthcare award shows, period. The Manny Awards, Lions Health, LIAs, One Show Health, The Global Awards, Clio Health, MM&M Awards and the Creative Floor Awards each one has their own niche, but each one was selected because it met the criteria of having a track record of picking great jurors, being hard to win, and being prestigious.”
Top 10 Companies
Company: Total Points
1. Boehringer Ingelheim: 96
2. GlaxoSmithKline: 91
3. Eli Lilly: 89
4. Johnson & Johnson: 57
5. Merck & Co.: 43
6. Bayer: 43
7. Novartis: 40
8. Pfizer: 30
9. Roche: 28
10. Biogen: 26
Top 10 Prescription Brands
Prescription Brand: Total Points (Company)
1. Stiolto: 71 (Boehringer Ingelheim)
2. Lartruvo: 68 (Lilly)
3. Xofigo: 26 (Bayer)
4. Nucala: 17 (GlaxoSmithKline)
5. Eylea: 12 (Regeneron)
6. Pradaxa: 10 (Boehringer Ingelheim)
7. Repatha: 9 (Amgen)
7. Mydayis: 9 (Shire/Takeda)
7. Arikayce: 9 (Insmed)
10. Spinraza: 8 (Biogen)
10. Jardiance: 8 (Boehringer Ingelheim and Lilly)
10. Eucrisa: 8 (Pfizer)
Senior marketing executives representing the OCI’s top 3 companies and brands were asked the following questions …
• What were the challenges you faced, and how did creativity help you overcome those challenges?
• What does creativity and innovation mean to you in pharmaceutical marketing?
• What does it mean for you to be recognized among the most innovative and creative brands/companies in the industry?
… and here is what they had to say:
Boehringer Ingelheim & Stiolto 
Award-recognized campaigns include:
“5 Million Puffs”
“Garage”
“Living Room”
“Kitchen”
Jared Kurtz
Executive Director, Respiratory Marketing, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc.
“Inspired by deep insights and driven by differentiated strategies, we always strive to provide important education about our brands in new, creative ways that will be memorable to our audiences. We’re honored to be recognized for creative thinking and for work we’re proud to stand behind.
The marketplace is very competitive, but we noticed a sea of sameness from others in this category. We saw an opportunity to differentiate our brand through innovation. With one of our recent campaigns, we addressed a topic that no COPD brand had ever touched: patients’ history of smoking. We were able to bring this topic to life in a creative and respectful way – and in the process, we ultimately cut through the clutter to allow our message to be heard.
Some peers within the industry choose to be safe, which ultimately limits creativity. We strongly disagree with that approach. We’re always looking for ways to challenge ourselves and explore creative ways to communicate about our brand while following the science and research. This approach allows our campaigns to reach those impacted by COPD in an interesting, memorable manner.
When creating a new campaign, you need to remain focused on helping patients and providing their healthcare providers with the information they need to make a treatment decision. We already received positive feedback from our audiences about our message. It’s really an added bonus to be recognized by Med Ad News for our work. I hope our work serves as an inspiration to other marketers in the industry to eschew the ordinary, and double down on both creativity and innovation.”
Xofigo
Award-recognized campaigns include:
“Battle in the Bone”
Niclas Ringberg,
VP Strategic Marketing
Bayer U.S. LLC Oncology
Pharmaceuticals Global Strategic Marketing
“Our objective was to highlight the importance to attack prostate cancer at the root, in the bone, and we knew we would not achieve that by doing the same old, same old.
We firmly believe that creativity has the power to overcome communication obstacles, so being recognized as one of the most creative brands in the industry certainly means a lot.”
GlaxoSmithKline
Award-recognized campaigns include:
“Breath of Life”
“Lives Move Forward”
Andy Kennemer
VP Customer Experience and Digital Innovation, GlaxoSmithKline
“As the push for greater impact from marketing and advertising grows, investments in data-driven customer experiences is usually the answer. But without breakthrough creative, those investments often fall flat. In order for pharma marketing to resonate, we have to stop producing what is expected. We have to break the mold. We’ve worked hard, surrounding ourselves with great partners to get to this point. It’s both rewarding and humbling to see the recognition of this work. But we have so much more we can do. Our benchmarks should look outside of the industry in order to really become best in class.”
Eli Lilly & Lartruvo
(Editor’s note: Lartruvo is no longer on the market)
Award-recognized campaigns include:
“The World’s Smallest Booth”
“Get Up Alarm Clock”
For Lilly recognition:
Gabi Mittas
Global Oncology Marketing Senior Director, Lilly
“It’s a real honor and privilege to be amongst such strong brands and companies. It’s a great moment to reinforce the need to continually strive for communications that stand out, clearly convey something that the audience can connect with, and feel inspired to understand, engage and act. Hopefully this fuels more teams to really push themselves that little more, get out of our industry’s comfort zone and truly connect on another level.”
For Lartruvo recognition:
Garrett Giles
Global Oncology Brand Director, Lilly
“With STS being a rare cancer, and extremely fragmented in terms of the number of subtypes, getting the attention of the oncology community can be challenging. Bringing to life the insights of those who experience STS and treat STS is core to how we wanted to create a connection with the community.”
Quinton Shields
Associate Brand Manager Oncology, Lilly
“Thinking creatively about how to create ‘stop in your tracks’ concepts has been key to the success of getting and keeping the attention of our audience.”
Cijaye Mullen
Brand Director US Oncology, Lilly
“It is so important to be creative and innovative in pharma, but it’s not always easy. Leaning on data and science is important, but for true creativity and innovation to be realized, bringing deep customer insights to life only make the data and science more meaningful, emotional and impactful.”
About the award shows
Manny Awards
For more than 30 years, the Manny Awards have paid tribute to the creative work of agencies serving the healthcare market, their people, and their contributions to the industry. Each year during April at this gala awards ceremony, Med Ad News and agency professionals come together to acknowledge those making significant contributions to, and celebrate creative excellence in, healthcare communications. On this special evening, more than 600 industry peers join Med Ad News in New York to honor winners in an extensive range of award categories. The accolades include three Agency of the Year categories, Industry Person of the Year, Agency on the Rise, Most Creative Agency, and the Heart Award for philanthropic/social causes. The 2020 event is scheduled for April 16 at NYC’s Chelsea Piers.
Cannes Lions: Pharma and Health & Wellness
Cannes Lions is a five-day International Festival of Creativity and the largest gathering in the creative marketing community. The Health Track consists of the Pharma Lions and Health & Wellness Lions. Lions Health is a two-day forum that focuses on the creation, conception and execution of awe-inspiring life-changing creativity that has a verifiable impact on healthcare outcomes. The Health & Wellness and Pharma Lions celebrate creativity in branded communications in this highly innovative but fiercely regulated sector with the unique power to truly change lives. The 67th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is taking place along the French Riviera June 22-26, 2020.
LIA Awards: Pharma and Health & Wellness
Found in 1986, the London International Awards (LIA) stands as a champion of the creative process, creatives themselves, and of course fantastic creative work. Created for creatives, LIA is a show striving for honesty and openness. LIA is rapidly rising to become one of the industry’s most important shows. In large part this is due to Creative LIAisons, a weeklong event held each year in Las Vegas concurrently with judging. The 2019 winners and finalists will be revealed on Nov. 4.
Clio Health
Built on Clio’s enduring reputation for recognizing the most creative and culturally relevant marketing and communications, Clio Health was founded in 2009 to celebrate the work behind wellness. The program is a barometer for excellence in a highly specialized field, recognizing creativity that not only meets the advanced needs of consumers, but addresses the sophisticated challenges, demands and opportunities of a fast-evolving, rapidly expanding global marketplace and industry. The 2019 winners announcement is set for Dec. 9.
The One Show
The One Show is one of the world’s most prestigious awards shows in advertising, design and digital marketing that celebrates excellence in creativity of ideas and quality of execution. Established in 1973 and produced by non-profit organization The One Club for Creativity, The One Show is recognized for the high level of integrity in the event’s judging procedures and processes. More than 18,000 pieces were entered last year from 74 countries. Winners are announced each year at The One Show awards ceremonies in May during Creative Week in New York.
The MM&M Awards
The MM&M Awards celebrate excellence in all facets of healthcare marketing and communications within the life sciences industry. With more than 80 judges, the MM&M Awards are the result of deep analysis and expertise amongst esteemed panels of leaders and thinkers representing a wide variety of disciplines and backgrounds within healthcare marketing communities. The 16th annual MM&M Awards show was held in New York on Oct. 10, 2019.
The Global Awards
The Global Awards – celebrating 25 years with the November 2019 event – are dedicated to excellence in healthcare & wellness and pharma advertising and communications on an international basis. Honoring the World’s Best Health & Wellness and Pharma Advertising from all over the world, the competition extends over regional, national and continental boundaries to provide a comprehensive 360° worldview of advertising and corporate communications in the international health & wellness and pharma community. The Global Awards receives entries from healthcare corporations, hospitals, advertising agencies, pharmaceutical companies, production companies, design studios, etc. that produce communications for healthcare & wellness, pharmaceutical, and medical entities and causes.
The Creative Floor Healthcare Awards
With August 2019 marking the London event’s sixth year, The Creative Floor – billed as “The Toughest Healthcare Award Show on Earth” – continues to be the only health and wellness award show in the world to donate a percentage of profits to help more diversity and help underprivileged talent break into the healthcare communications industry. Winners of the awards decide how the money is spent.
