Cases
25+ years of successful healthcare communication.
We'll walk you through case studies from our areas of expertise. A lot has come together over the past 25 years. In short: there's almost nothing Next hasn't already developed and delivered. That experience is our foundation. For regulatory and contractual reasons, however, we're unable to name companies or products. Thank you for your understanding.
Cases
Case studies from our everyday agency life
Every project is unique. The following case studies give you a sense of how we approach challenges and how we try to solve them.
Task
Launch of a blockbuster in multiple sclerosis with a novel active ingredient for a national pharmaceutical company. Other countries had already launched. The client wanted a – successful – Switzerland-specific approach.
Solution
Market analysis and defining the right key messages in the right sequence, adapting the global campaign to Switzerland (Swissness). Advising leadership through the pre-launch phase, developing all communication materials for launch, post-launch, through patent expiry. Creating effective communication materials, conceiving and implementing patient communication.
Outcome
The communication strategy, the key messages, and the execution all came together. The Swiss affiliate (home market!) receives the award for «Best Launch Worldwide».
Task
Two pharmaceutical companies offer TBE vaccines (tick-borne encephalitis following a tick bite). Awareness of the risk is too low among the Swiss population. An awareness campaign is meant to change that.
Solution
Next develops a website and secures the Federal Office of Public Health's support for the campaign. Together with key opinion leaders, the topic is launched into public discourse. The agency develops information materials for physician practices and pharmacies, also available for download from the website.
Outcome
After three years, the media picked up on the TBE risk and now report on it independently each spring. The campaign no longer needs to continue. It has achieved all its goals.
Task
Several of a client's Rx medications in hypertension are approaching patent expiry. A campaign is meant to give the brand one more «kick», engage physicians and patients with fresh ideas, and highlight the importance of secondary prevention.
Solution
Next analyzes the market and develops a novel omnichannel campaign with a compliant public-facing website and a CE-certified app – developed with a Swiss FOPH spinoff – that physicians exclusively «prescribe» to patients. Goal: raise risk awareness and optimize therapy monitoring.
Outcome
The campaign exceeds all expectations. The app continues for years as the company's only public app outside the US. Due to its unexpected success, the client ends the campaign – Next essentially becomes a victim of its own success. The campaign redefines the client's «gold standard» for omnichannel communication.
Task
300 people die every year in Switzerland from antibiotic resistance. Physicians prescribe antibiotics even for viral infections. A German company offers a lab solution for rapid infection differentiation and wants to bring the topic to mainstream media.
Solution
Next brings together physicians, laboratory medicine experts, and key opinion leaders from politics and patient organizations and, after numerous conversations and persuasion, gets everyone ready to discuss the topic at a press conference.
Outcome
Turnout at the press conference exceeds all expectations. The topic receives major coverage in Switzerland's leading media. The clipping value comes in at nearly CHF 1 million, based on standard industry benchmarks.
Public relations in Swiss healthcare is difficult by international standards for both pharma and medtech. Next has successfully placed several health topics in the public eye. Since then, the climate has become even more challenging.
Task
A leading global pharmaceutical company developed a campaign in the US for a new treatment option for a serious illness. But the campaign doesn't fit Swiss culture or the suffering of affected patients at all. For the Swiss launch, the client wants a local, coherent presence.
Solution
Next gets to know patients' fears and needs and develops a new, distinctive, empathetic, and credible presence – one that resonates especially with prescribing physicians. The execution is sensitive, immediately creating tension and interest.
Outcome
The product launch in Switzerland, in this difficult indication, is a complete success. The campaign is very well received right away. Prescribers are engaged. Patients recognize themselves in the imagery and feel taken seriously.
Task
Members of a small medical association want to push back against the massive erosion of their income caused by ongoing political cost-cutting. Their income has dropped by more than 30% within just a few years. The time investment required to earn a specialist title – over ten years in total – barely pays off anymore.
Solution
Next develops a new platform to give this important surgical discipline a stronger public voice. The agency joins the strategy commission, runs workshops, brings in outside specialists on specific topics, and moderates a «Quo Vadis» board retreat based on a comprehensive member survey.
Outcome
Five years on, the association is among the most active in its field. Its network has grown substantially. Health insurers are launching pilot projects with members. The website logs over 1,000 visitors a month. Politically, the association is more active than an umbrella organization and is itself a member of a coalition it helped co-found. The retreat produced a new structure that lets the association operate more nimbly going forward. Next continues to support the association.