Important to deliver core message in first 30 seconds even in long-form content: Nikhil Chopra of Cipla

The reducing attention span of consumers is posing a severe challenge for marketers. A few market research reports show that the attention span of average human being could be as low as eight seconds at a time, which implies that marketers need to figure out new ways and innovations in their strategy to communicate in this dynamic attention-deficit economy. But this doesn’t hinder Cipla from experimenting with long-form content on digital, which, the brand believes, has always borne results.

Nikhil Chopra, Executive Vice-President and Head of India Business, said, “Some of our content created last year was in the long format. These got a positive response from people. Hence, for this year as well, we are confident about the longer format.” Although, he points out that even in long-form content, it’s important for the core message to be delivered in the first 30 seconds.

Chopra believes that one mistake marketers make while creating and distributing content is that they try to use the same content on different platforms. He said it’s a challenge to create content that appeals to a larger section of the audience. “It is a challenge to curate content that appeals to a wide cross-section of audience. Brands often end up using the same content in its original format across several mediums. That might reduce its impact.”

Recently, the brand launched the second chapter of the #BerokZindagi campaign with a digital film highlighting the core message, “Asthma ke liye inhalers hain sahi” (Inhalers are right for asthma). The digital film is anchored by Radhika Apte and addresses key issues and myths that hinder appropriate treatment of asthma through inhalers. The video features key influencers across categories and genres such as celebrity chef Vikas Khanna; Arjuna awardee and badminton player Parupalli Kashyap and digital influencer Shristi Dixit. The brand has intentionally brought on board influencers across categories and genres to make the content relatable to the cross-sections of the society.

#BerokZindagi film:

Addressing key issues and myths around therapy, the film highlights the social stigma of using inhalers. It shows that they are suitable for children and all levels of severity and that they are not addictive and show better results than oral solutions. This digital film was scripted by the creative team of Schbang, directed by Nilay Singh and produced by Abhimanyu Balasubramanyam and Abhishek Mishra.

The brand has also planned a television commercial and other amplification initiatives for the campaign.

Talking about the success of the campaign, Chopra said, “We have seen a solid impact on people’s awareness and acceptance of inhalation therapy after the launch of our first chapter of #BerokZindagi last year. Research has shown us a 14% increase in awareness levels about asthma and a 26% decrease in the rejection of inhalers. Success is apparent only when an impact is noticed in people’s attitudes and actions. Fortunately for us, we received very positive feedback following ‘Berok Zindagi’ last year, both from people and the medical fraternity. These numbers justify our efforts and spend for building awareness to breaking the barriers around treating a condition like asthma that affects more than 3.5 crore of our population.”

Cipla believes in the power of content marketing as it gives the brand an opportunity to engage with consumers. “Content marketing is important for us as it helps the brand build a sense of value and trust among consumers besides giving them something to engage with on a personal level, which is where our stories by real patients come in,” said Chopra.

Health and medicine as a category hold a serious tone to it. Chopra believes that content marketing helps personalise communication and make it more accessible to people. “Building relevant content that resonates with people helps to strengthen people’s reception and understanding of the topic, thereby helping the brands.”

In the first leg of the campaign ‘Berok Zindagi’, the brand created a lot of engagement with the audience through user-generated content. Chopra said that the campaign inspired numerous patients to come forward and talk to the brand about how they have lived with and conquered the disease through inhalation therapy. They have spoken about how they live unhindered lives today.

He said, “This digital film featuring Radhika Apte is also a part of our aim to engage with people at large by creating content that people relate to. The film conversationally engages with the audience where the celebrities are seen talking to the viewers about their experience with asthma and knowledge about the same, which they share from their personal experiences.”

Content definitely helps in creating awareness around an issue or a category, but it’s really difficult for marketers to not sell the product in the content piece. It’s always a challenge to have a balance between creating content pieces that are made with the sole purpose of building awareness around a category and is not exactly an ad for the brand or even branded content.

Sharing his viewpoint, Chopra said, “We don’t see this as an issue at all because only pushing out a product is not our intent. It is our genuine aim to create awareness about asthma among a mass audience. The presentation of our content through ‘BerokZindagi’ at large and #InhalersHaiSahi this year gives it a significant recall, thereby serving the purpose of fostering the uptake of inhalers and building necessary awareness about facts and misguided information about asthma and inhalers.” 

He added, “It is important because numerous people with asthma in our country suffer from the social stigma attached to not just the disease, which is seen as a shortcoming in people, but even the use of inhalers. As a result, patients are embarrassed to use inhalers in public. Patients are often scared of getting addicted to inhalers, which is absolutely untrue. In so many cases, children with asthma who could have lived a perfectly normal life with inhalation treatment are deprived of that possibility because parents feel using inhalers might stunt their growth.”   

Cipla also runs a platform Breathefree, which is a public service initiative for patients with chronic airway diseases. Breathefree is committed to helping patients with airway diseases such as asthma, COPD and allergic rhinitis. It encompasses the complete patient journey in the areas of diagnosis, counselling and treatment adherence. www.breathefree.com is a one-stop destination for all information related to chronic airway diseases. The website provides information, solutions and support on problems such as asthma, COPD and allergic rhinitis. The platform also helps to reach out to counsellors, who can help in diagnosis and support in the right treatment through counselling.