Abstract

In 2007, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, Novartis, launched an unbranded interactive web video campaign on YouTube to sensitize people to the need for getting the influenza (flu) vaccination. The FluFlix Video Contest went on to be a big hit, according to experts. They felt that pharmaceutical companies had been “overly cautious” when it came to adopting Web.2 or social media, but since 2008 more and more companies were coming forward to try out these new media channels.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Marketing communication
• Choice of media channels
• New media
• social media
• and Viral marketing

Keywords

Marketing, viral campaign, interactive Web video campaign, YouTube campaign, FluFlix Video Contest, social media, user-generated content, Web 2.0, DTC advertising, regulatory, legal, pharmaceutical, Novartis, Fluvirin, influenza, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter