Have German Pharmaceutical Associations Mastered Storytelling in Content Marketing? – A Comparison

BioNTech, Bayer, Bionorica – from vaccine pioneers to mainstream drugs and herbal medicines, the German pharmaceutical landscape has a considerable number and variety of companies to offer. Many of these corporations and SMEs are organized in one (or more) of the four major pharmaceutical associations:

– BAH Federal Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
– BPI German Pharmaceutical Industry Association
– Pro Generika e.V.
– BPI German Pharmaceutical Industry Association

Its task, in turn, is to represent the interests of its members vis-à-vis politicians, the general public, the scientific community and other sectors and countries; in other words, a fairly broad audience. The objectives here are, for example, better framework conditions in production and delivery or employer branding for an entire industry. This requires a high dose of communication, which should be contemporary, convincing and appealing. We therefore compare the websites, social media channels and media formats of these four associations in terms of their storytelling impact. To make it more exciting to see who will end up in first place, we present them in alphabetical order.

Related article: Giving white coats a new look: Employer branding in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors

BAH Federal Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers

“Healthy perspectives. For Germany.” – This is the claim of the association with the most members among the four. When it comes to brand storytelling and content marketing, they have earned a healthy second place in our eyes.

The website has a modern, fresh design with a clear, dynamic structure. Different shades of blue and organic shapes bring a lot of lightness into play. This corporate design is also used on all social media images, so that there is a nice recognition value.

From Print to Online: The BAH’s Content Strategy

Many of the articles on the website are still based on a traditional medium, namely a print magazine. This is called Arzneimittelpunkt and provides a lot of content at regular intervals, which is recycled online. However, the overview of topics is not easy to navigate. Many articles tend to serve as background information for topic pages across the entire website, not, for example, to serve a blog or an online magazine as a contact point for readers.

In the articles, you can see that the editorial team makes an effort at journalistic storytelling, e.g. in the form of interviews, quotes and anecdotes. Unfortunately, the layout, at least online, is very text-heavy and not structured in a very reader-friendly way. For example, you have to click on more than five pages to finish reading an article. In print, on the other hand, the presentation is much more appealing and “magazine-like”. Many stock photos are used. The interviews also show the faces and authentic photos of the actors.

BAH on Social Media: Breakthrough on Instagram not yet Successful

On social media, BAH focuses primarily on LinkedIn (1,500+ subscribers) and Twitter (1,900+ subscribers), where a lot of event announcements are made, among other things. This shows that dialog and personal interaction are also an important communication tool for the association. A lot of work has also been put into posts and stories on Instagram for over a year. Unfortunately, they haven’t yet managed to package the topic in an Instagram-ready way. A meager 205 subscribers only follow the account. In turn, all social media channels are integrated directly on the homepage as a mixed stream, which keeps the website lively and up-to-date and helps the audience to continue directly to the other channels.

“How can the transformation process be shaped for #pharmaceutical manufacturers?” Company founder and author @fraenzi explores this question at #BAHMGV. More information on the general meeting: https://t.co/TMmZWkZsft pic.twitter.com/WnnFHaKTHW

– Federal Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (@BAH_digital) September 23, 2021

The company’s activity in the area of video content should also be emphasized. There are over 90 videos in the YouTube archive. Most of them are short explanatory films. Excerpts from interviews or small edited sections of a campaign, e.g. “Gesundheit ganz persönlich” (Health in person) with statements from passers-by and pharmacists about local pharmacies. There is a campaign video for this, for example, which scores points in terms of storytelling with authentic images, scenes and protagonists.

Storytelling at BAH: 2nd Place for Successful Media Mix and Inspiring Editorial Approaches

The association’s latest highlight video (Corona: How pharmaceutical manufacturers have secured supplies) unfortunately takes another step back in this respect. With stock videos and read-out statements from various association players, it seems rather monotonous. As expected, the statements are also quite promotional. Nonetheless, this clip leads the ranking of BAH videos on YouTube with over 12,000 views. However, it may well be that this success is also due to how and where the video was integrated and shared everywhere, for example in the newsletter or other formats.

All in all, the association has a nice media mix that is sensibly networked on the website and in social media, as well as at events and as a high-quality print magazine. Even more could be gained from the editorial content with appealing visual content and a clear blog structure. For memorable storytelling and to better reach your target groups, it is important not only to educate, but also to touch, inspire and motivate emotionally. This requires more diverse protagonists than just the association itself. The pharmacy campaign was definitely a step in the right direction.

BPI German Pharmaceutical Industry Association

“We work – an ambitious motivation to which the BPI and its members organized in the association are committed. We lobby politicians, external stakeholders and the public for a location policy that secures jobs, drives pharmaceutical innovation and fulfills the long-term and cross-party task: Ensuring the sustainable improvement of healthcare for patients!” – This is the claim and the underlying vision of the German Pharmaceutical Industry Association, which has 270 member companies and around 78,000 employees.

A specially created landing page starts promisingly. The hook is an image video that has a recognizable, entertaining illustration style. But this is also the highlight of the campaign. The content of the video features the usual advertising phrases and obligatory coronavirus references. However, the clip has generated 100,000 views since May 2021, which can be considered a success.

In comparison, an elaborate video interview series from the earlier campaign “The people behind the drugs” only had meagre YouTube figures, usually in the double-digit range. However, this may also be due to the fact that they were not integrated via the YouTube player on the BPI website until recently.

The approach of this series, in which the protagonists from different areas of activity in the pharmaceutical industry have their say, definitely has storytelling potential. Whether it sounds more like a story or more like flat advertising (or even justification) for work in the pharmaceutical sector depends very much on the personality of the person telling the story. Unfortunately, there is also a lack of a common thread between the testimonial videos.

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Get well soon? Storytelling in the pharmaceutical industry

BPI website: Two Landing Pages that haven’t quite found their Place yet

A clearly defined narrative is also the keyword when it comes to connecting or differentiating the wirwirken.de landing page with the BPI website. Articles are regularly published on both. wirwirken.de – the more visually appealing contact point – states that the focus is on digitalization and innovation. However, there are also articles on other topics; and on the BPI website there are also articles on digitalization and innovation. However, what most blog posts – regardless of the landing page – have in common: despite attempts at data storytelling, they are quite dry and text-heavy. Images are usually only used as headers or post images and are kept in a non-uniform, sober stock photo look.

On social media, the BPI focuses primarily on Twitter (1,300+ subscribers) and LinkedIn (1,200+ subscribers), where it regularly shares its own content as well as contributions from partners and members.

3rd place for the BPI: Storytelling in Red, but without a Thread

To summarize the third place in our ranking, we can say that the BPI is basically on the right track. The social media activities are rock solid. With a specially repositioned landing page, it provides the space for editorial content that can theoretically inform and inspire a wide range of target groups. Unfortunately, the implementation is usually still too sober. The core topics of digitalization and innovation are also quite vague and general. There would certainly still be potential for more precise positioning.

A change of perspective from “we” to “you” – at least for the editorial stories – and more emotional images could be two simple tricks for more appealing content. The fact that the BPI is the only one of the four associations to use red rather than blue as its corporate color would offer a number of opportunities for the design and recognition value of the content, on the website and in all other media.

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Pro Generika e.V.

A first glance at the website of the Association of Generics and Biosimilar Companies in Germany is still quite optimistic. The layout and structure looks clear and concise and has a high proportion of visual content. On closer inspection, however, you have to realize that the topic of storytelling simply falls far too short on many levels.

Bottom of the League in Storytelling in a Comparison of Pharmaceutical Associations

Pro Generika therefore comes last in our comparison. They are quite active in the area of dynamic content, i.e. newly published articles. However, from an editorial point of view, these are mainly to be regarded as PR news rather than stories. If you want to go to one of these posts to read it, there can be more than five clicks in the way, which is not very user-friendly. The association’s Twitter work (1,400+ subscribers) makes a professional impression. On YouTube and in the area of video content, efforts are made to provide informative content. However, it is usually a rather dry contribution or appeal spoken into the camera, in which more is told than shown visually.

vfa Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies

This leaves us with the frontrunner in our storytelling comparison. In conclusion, it can already be said that the vfa, whose members represent more than two thirds of the entire German pharmaceutical market, holds first place by a clear margin.

Starting with the first visual impression on the website, there is a balance and a clear, fresh CI across all channels. Well thought-out series of articles with interesting headlines are the hook of the website and are placed prominently at the very beginning. Social media channels and formats are repeatedly referred to in various places, but without being disruptive. And rightly so, because they have a lot to offer:

Well-deserved 1st place: vfa goes the Extra Mile in Content Marketing

The vfa is the only association that runs a podcast. Sometimes the narrative or the content format changes, depending on which larger campaign it is intended to contribute to. We are delighted to see that they have recently ventured even further into the world of storytelling. The “research thriller” draws parallels between detective work and the mysteries of science.

Anyone who says that pharmaceutical topics are not suitable for Instagram will be proven wrong by the vfa. Over 12,900 subscribers prove that the association really does manage to make its topics accessible to the general public with original content and a consumer-oriented presentation. This is also demonstrated by the interaction with the individual posts.

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A recipe for storytelling in the healthcare sector

And that’s not all. On YouTube, the vfa not only presents a wealth of content, but also impressive viewing figures, often in the five-digit range. A loyal following of over 1,200 subscribers has been built up with a variety of formats and campaigns – which we will come back to in a moment. You can also see from the formats that there is a great willingness here to keep trying out new approaches. The association recently experimented with live streams as part of its so-called debate tour.

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Ein Beitrag geteilt von ForschungIstDieBesteMedizin (@vfapharma)

Content Campaigns from vfa Provide Information and are Fun

On the separate landing page Research is the best medicine, the association gives itself even more space for storytelling. The content is not just about monotonous interviews spoken into the camera, but the whole repertoire of communication as it works today is used. Two of the campaign highlights make you want more as soon as you read the basic idea.

“Influencer campaign: bringing research to life: This is the vfa’s goal with the #ResearchIsTheBestMedicine campaign. To this end, researchers are opening the doors to their laboratories, talking about their individual paths, their moments of success and their personal motivation – and sometimes even inviting people to take part in their research.”

“Research on Stage: #ResearchIsTheBestMedicine – researchers themselves told us why. On March 1, 2018, the legendary “Kino International” in Berlin hosted “Research on Stage”: the stage was set for stories from the world of drug research. In a completely new format, eight researchers from member companies of the association reported to a large audience on what motivates them personally every day in their work.”

Even a part of many company websites that is usually neglected, the press page, has a professional and fresh design. As a service, you not only get corporate photos to download, but also specially provided images from research. vfa members who maintain their own Twitter channel are also highlighted here; and there are always references to their own video and audio formats in the credits. Conclusion: Everything done correctly!