Instagram has become the ultimate platform for digital marketers; the place to turn heads with dazzling artwork and mesmerize audiences with fascinating stories. But it’s only one platform among many, and the visionary marketer knows how and when to combine it with others for unparalleled impact.
Dr. Abidi Pharmaceuticals, a well-established pharmaceutical brand in Iran, asked Netbina to run a campaign to raise awareness of the common GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease) condition, for which Dr. Abidi offers medication.
Dr. Abidi already had an active Instagram page on which medical information was shared. For the purpose of this campaign, however, the Netbina advertising team decided to go beyond this platform to actively engage the audience and achieve the effect the brand was after.
Netbina went for a game-changer: a Telegram bot that offered an interactive online GERD diagnostic test to Dr. Abidi’s audience.
Venturing into the “lesser”-known
“Telegram” is a popular messaging platform in Iran, but using it in marketing can be tricky. While many Iranians use Telegram daily to keep in touch with friends and check out their favorite channels, it’s essential to know when and how to use the platform.
Leveraging social platforms accurately is key to designing a successful digital campaign. You need to know your tools and pick the ones that best fit your specific objectives and target audience. For Dr. Abidi’s GERD campaign, Netbina’s creative team opted for a Telegram bot questionnaire to promote awareness of the condition.
“When designing a campaign, you need to see through the eyes of your audience. If you’re going to raise awareness of GERD, what’s the best way you could grab their attention?
The ‘best’ way could, perhaps, be a GERD diagnostic test or survey using a few simple questions that take less than a minute. So, you could take the questionnaire idea and turn it into a Telegram bot,” Explains Marzieh from Netbina’s Activation Team.
“Designing a campaign could be analogous to translating the target audience’s line of thought into an effective digital plan. The closer you get to their line of thought, the better you’ll hit your KPIs.”
Leveraging platforms to maximize impact
The activation team put the Telegram bot questionnaire at the center of Dr. Abidi’s GERD campaign. The brief bot survey consisted of multiple questions related to GERD symptoms and was promoted mainly via Telegram channels.
Due to the bot’s interactive and engaging nature, the campaign’s strategy worked well in terms of attracting participants. After completing the questionnaire, participants were offered a video featuring a gastroenterologist providing more information about the condition.
In addition to the Telegram bot, three Instagram posts set the stage for the GERD campaign, engaging Dr. Abidi’s existing audience, and Instagram influencers directed their followers to Dr. Abidi’s website, on which the survey was also available.
“Platform-Smart” pays off
Using the mixed channel strategy, we were able to hit over 10,000 unique participants for Dr. Abidi’s GERD survey using the Telegram bot. This was an immensely successful awareness campaign, as the brand was able to reach and engage a large part of its target audience.
Instagram is an invaluable tool in digital marketing, and it makes a lot of business sense to invest in crafting delicate visual messages and sharing them as posts or stories. But sometimes, it pays off to carefully consider alternatives; to dare to do something a little bit different, so that you may smooth the path for extraordinary results.
