Establishing An International Leadership Position In High Blood Pressure Control: The BP Success Zone Campaign

Client: Novartis Pharmaceuticals

Category: Pharmaceutical Companies

Background

Over 72 million adults in the United States have high blood pressure. Blood pressure in seventy percent of these individuals is not under control. Over one third of individuals who have high blood pressure are not even aware that they have this condition. National guidelines for management of high blood pressure include both a lifestyle component, as well as pharmaceutical therapy, if needed. Novartis Pharmaceuticals makes three major antihypertensive medications and wished to solidify its leadership position in the area of blood pressure control. Novartis approached Dr. Rippe and teamed him with retired football legend Joe Montana on a national hypertension education campaign entitled, The BP Success Zone.

RLI's Response

Dr. Rippe has traveled approximately two days a month for five years spanning 2002 – 2007, along with Mr. Montana, to bring the message of high blood pressure control to over 60 cities in person. In addition, Dr. Rippe and Mr. Montana have traveled to 150 cities via satellite media tour. Dr. Rippe and Mr. Montana conducted over 1,300 media interviews during this five year period. This campaign won multiple public relations awards during this period of time and was deemed "the most successful marketing and public relations campaign in the history of Novartis" by Novartis executives. In addition to the media work that Dr. Rippe accomplished with Mr. Montana, Rippe Lifestyle Institute also conducted a clinical trial exploring the combination of lifestyle measures with pharmaceutical therapy and blood pressure management. This trial showed that the combination of lifestyle measure (improved nutrition, regular physical activity and weight loss, if necessary) act synergistically with pharmaceutical therapy.

Results

Throughout this period the Novartis Pharmaceuticals brands which sponsored the BP Success Zone Campaign continued to grow rapidly with the major brand exceeding $1 billion in annual sales.