Mascots in Marketing

From the energizer bunny to the Geico gecko, mascots are proven to make memorable spokes-"people" for brands. Levaquin was eager to get in on the act.

Levaquin was a broad-spectrum antibiotic that aimed to grow it's use in a hospital setting for IV to PO use. We started by aiming for the emergency department and then spread out through hospitalists to the other wings. "ED" was developed to always be there when they needed him.

Word of advice: Never call it an ER. It's the emergency department, not just one room. They may have liked the TV show but they hate that.

ED got his name from the E.D. and his look from a Gumby doll that was on our ACD's bookshelf. His face was the QU in the levaquin script font. We created a steady stream of illustrations of him in metaphorical situations. Later he was expanded to became fun reinforcement for internal rep promotions like call plans and user guides. In the very profitable antibiotic space, Levaquin jumped up in market share as a direct result of this campaign. So proof that mascots work. Too bad the product was later pulled because it was associated with mental health side effects.

This campaign was the intellectual property of Vox Medica.