Amid slower sales of its high-profile Botox wrinkle filler, Irvine’s Allergan Inc. is gearing up an advertising launch for Latisse, the first FDA-approved cosmetic eyelash enhancer.
Latisse is the drug maker’s newly approved product to enhance the thickness, length and darkness of eyelashes.
Costa Mesa-based Pacific Communica-tions, which is owned by Allergan, will be handling all of the communication for the professional and patient side of the advertising push.
Allergan got approval to sell Latisse for growing eyelashes late last year. The drug uses bimatoprost, the active ingredient in its Lumigan drug for treating glaucoma.
Early estimates are that sales of Latisse could exceed $500 million annually for the drug maker.
Pacific Communications primarily will be targeting doctors through advertisements, Web sites and Allergan’s field sales force, said Henry Lee, senior vice president and director of client services at Pacific Communications.
“We have developed all of the collateral for the sales representatives to use while sitting with a doctor,” Lee said.
The healthcare ad shop is launching a Web site aimed specifically at doctors that is expected to launch sometime next month. The professionals Web site will be different from the consumer Web site, www.latisse.com, which went live in mid-January.
It is also buying ad space in medical journals.
Latisse has broadened Pacific’s target customers from mainly aesthetic dermatologists and plastic surgeons to eye doctors as well, Lee said.
The ad shop is in discussion with the Food and Drug Administration about the next wave of materials due out sometime next month.
“FDA has been fairly straightforward with us about Latisse and given us some very good guidance and comments,” Lee said.
As for Allergan’s straight-to-consumer campaigns, New York-based Grey Advertising Inc., part of the United Kingdom’s WPP Group PLC, and New York-based Chandler Chicco Agency, part of New Jersey-based inVentiv Health Inc., will be handing advertising and public relations for Latisse. Both have worked with Allergan in the past on Botox and Juv & #233;derm.
Consumer ads will be tied to a celebrity spokesperson, similar to Virginia Madsen’s work with Botox.
The spokesperson has yet to be announced.
The product is available by prescription only with a 30-day supply to cost about $120.
OrangeCounty.com Goes Live
Freedom Interactive, the interactive arm of Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc., has launched a Web site guide to appeal to local twentysomethings.
OrangeCounty.com is designed to be the interactive guide to what’s happening at local nightspots, restaurants, beaches, concerts, movie theaters and shopping centers.
“The site particularly fills a void for 18- to 34-year-olds who want suggestions on cool places to go in Orange County that aren’t Disneyland or the usual tourist traps,” said Doug Bennett, president of Freedom Interactive.
The Web site had a soft launch this month to work out the bugs and finalize how content will be updated. An official launch will happen early to mid-May. An update of the site is planned for the fall to add more features and reviews.
Freedom bought the orangecounty.com Internet address about three years ago without a specific plan for it.
“(The URL) had been sitting idle for years with conflicting ideas about what to do with it,” Bennett said. “When I took over last year, I saw a whole demographic group that we weren’t connecting to with any of our other Web sites.”
OrangeCounty.com is working with the ocregister.com, another Web site within the Freedom Interactive network, but will keep separate staff from the newsroom.
The Orange County Register tried a similar Web site a few years back called SqueezeOC.com, which eventually folded back into the Register entertainment section after a lack of support from advertisers.
Bennett stressed that the site will not be like the former newsroom site, but more of a social media tool for advertisers and users.
“It’s different because it’s not built off the newsroom,” Bennett said. “We don’t have to be right on top of a fire or breaking event. It’s more about what’s going on and things to do tonight.”
OrangeCounty.com has already launched a Twitter feed and a Facebook page to draw attention to the page and will do street team promotions and sponsorships with local businesses.
Bits and Pieces:
Irvine-based Mazda North American Operations has launched a Web site in support of the 2010 Mazda3. The Web site will allow consumers to build and view the car as well as request a quote from a local Mazda dealership. The automaker’s ad shop, Newport Beach-based W.B. Doner & Co., has already launched TV and radio campaigns for the Mazda3 model Orange-based Orange County Transportation Authority has hired Los Angeles-based Sensis, an interactive ad shop, to redesign its main Web site. The OCTA site has been in the works for some time as more people have turned to the Internet to get information about the bus and train services. The OCTA site is expected to launch late June with new user tools.
