Inside Phathom's 'lighthearted' approach to Voquezna marketing

When Phathom Pharmaceuticals launched its first direct-to-consumer ads for Voquezna last year, it took a playful approach, sending an animated blue superhero mascot on an “Osmosis Jones”-like journey into the stomach of a person with GERD, where he vowed to “kick some acid.” That quirky ethos is now continuing into Voquezna’s latest DTC campaign. The new promos for the GERD treatment star Kenan Thompson, the longest-tenured cast member in “Saturday Night Live” history. In a commercial debuting Monday, the comedian hosts the “Kick Some Acid Cooking Show,” serving up a gourmet meal with over-the-top flair while he discusses how Phathom’s med helps reduce heartburn associated with his non-erosive GERD. Many of the foods that Thompson whips up are common triggers of GERD symptoms, including a chocolatey dessert and mini pizzas with sauce made from tomatoes, garlic and onions. While he’s focusing on dramatically showcasing his culinary skills, the aforementioned blue superhero, now relocated inside Thompson’s stomach, chimes in with more information about Voquezna as a treatment for both erosive and non-erosive GERD. Thompson was “very collaborative” in the process of coming up with the idea for the commercial, which plays into his talent for stepping into a variety of different roles every week on “SNL,” according to Martin Gilligan, Phathom’s chief commercial officer. “It kind of brings in his persona, and it marries up to what his GERD condition is,” Gilligan told Fierce Pharma Marketing in an interview. Phathom recruited Thompson as a spokesperson for the drug based largely on his recognizability and likeability, according to the exec. But the pharma’s relationship with Thompson dates back well before he began starring in the “GERD Is No Joke” campaign, which began its rollout at the end of March. After hearing about the actor’s non-erosive GERD diagnosis, “we reached out to him and briefed him on Voquezna, and he contacted his doctor and went on the drug, and he has done very, very well on it,” Gilligan said. So, when it came to putting together the new campaign, he said, “we saw an opportunity to bring someone in that people recognize, people like—and we kind of have a lighthearted ad to begin with, given the animation and the live component, so we’ve just kind of taken it to a new level by introducing Kenan, with just a little bit of humor in it.” That not-so-serious approach to advertising a serious drug is deliberate, Gilligan said. “We’ve got a compound that’s different, the mechanism is different, so everything we try and do is to keep that theme of differentiation,” he said, pointing out that many other pharma ads often seem to just regurgitate the same formulas and imagery with slightly different voice-overs. “We want to make sure that we have something different,” Gilligan continued. “One way to do that is—it’s not humor, it’s just lightheartedness. Because what we didn’t want to do is make a joke of the disease.” In walking that line between playfulness and all-out humor, Phathom is aiming to both stand out to viewers among a crowded sea of drug ads and also drill down on relatability. The new commercial, for example, achieves those respective goals by being “different” and by highlighting several “normal” foods that can cause GERD symptoms to flare up, Gilligan said. “And then you add someone like Kenan, who people recognize, and then it just puts the whole connection together,” he said. Phathom’s first Voquezna ad launched around this time last year, just a few months after the drug received FDA approval to treat erosive GERD, also known as erosive esophagitis. Since then, it has racked up another nod indicating it for use in treating heartburn associated with non-erosive GERD. The new campaign, therefore, targets the entire GERD population, Gilligan said. “Their symptoms are exactly the same; the patient journey is the same; the demographics are the same—so, in reality, there’s no difference,” he explained. “We share what we believe is motivating data in that ad that talks to healing, which is clearly a tie to erosive [GERD], but the main message is 24-hour heartburn relief … and that heartburn relief speaks to all GERD patients.” In addition to the new commercial, which is set to air on broadcast and connected TV, on social media and in doctor’s office waiting rooms, the GERD Is No Joke campaign also includes digital ads and a discussion guide for talking to a healthcare professional about GERD, complete with silly asides from Thompson. Gilligan said the company will be keeping an eye on how the comedian-led promos drive traffic to the Voquezna website—“which, we believe already that the addition of Kenan has been tremendously helpful in that,” he noted—and, ultimately, the number of people who ask a doctor about the drug. In its full-year earnings report last month, Phathom counted more than 300,000 filled prescriptions for Voquezna from its launch through Feb. 21, which the company said represented a 110% increase since its third-quarter report. Phathom credited the initial “Voquezna Can Kick Some Acid” campaign with reaching millions of people with GERD and boosting prescription requests. Revenues for the Voquezna family of products—so far, Phathom’s sole offerings—clocked in at $55.3 million for all of 2024, compared to $700,000 in 2023, thanks to Voquezna’s launch toward the end of 2023.