Ethicon® Marketing Launch Event
My Role: Creative Lead, Digital Production Manager; Team Size 15
Objective: Excite the pronate surgery medical device market with a new product launch.
The Team: Myself as Creative Lead. 2 designers, 2 programmers, 3 3D animators, content team and a separate video team.
Company: Propeller Communications for Ethicon family of Surgical tools.
How: Project planning, manage content writers, designers, 3d-artists, developers.
Result: Successful launch and demo at Las Vegas Trade Show.
Our event deliverables included:
Team members I Managed:
iOS Programmers
Account Managers
Graphic Artists
3D Artists
Marketing and Medical Copy Writers
Live Virtual Surgery Demo Application
Used a Wii controller to simulate the surgical device
Marketing and Sales Application
Event Launch Videos
Trade Show Booth Design
Virtual OR Game
Overview
At Propeller Communications, I was brought on as the third employee and creative leader in this ambitious startup. We began by creating the marketing for one medical device client under the J&J Ethicon umbrella; Gyencare Abbrevo®. During my tenure at Propeller I grew the creative team to include 2 designers, 2 programmers, 3 3D animators and helped to grow a separate video team which created live footage surgical videos. We blended the 3d animation with the live video.
This all culminated in the Ethicon team trusting us to create new marketing materials that we would launch at the annual uterine care medical device trade show in Las Vegas.
We had two main goals:
Make Ethicon® stand out at the annual trade show event.
Create an intuitive marketing and sales tools.
Live Virtual Surgery Demo Application
Simulating the feel for Surgery
For our live event in Las Vegas we wanted to give users a true feel for the device. This was a creative challenge that we took head on
The Abbrevo device was engineered to be inserted into the front of the pelvis, the handle dropped down, and curve around the the organs as it is pushed in. To give users a feel for this, we used Bluetooth technology to attach the Abbrevo® to a Wii controller and used it to interact with an application built in Unity3d.
The Challenge
At the trade show event, we wanted to WOW visitors at our booth by creating a virtual demo where users can get a “real” feel for using the surgical tools by standing in front of a monitor and using a tool in hand and moving it in 3D reality.
We didn’t have the budget for virtual reality, but we had big ambitions!
We used our existing 3D models and Unity 3D to create a new virtual surgery demo.
An obscure blue tooth plugin was used to connect a Wii controller to a Mac and give a real world feel for the tools in a 3d demonstration environment.
The demo was presented by a virtual host that helped guide the user through the various stages of the program. Demonstrating different available tools and meshes.
Carefully crafted 3D animation is used to demonstrate the precise points of incision and application to enhance the simulated feel of the Abbrevo® tool.
Marketing and Sales Application
Planning the Marketing Application
We needed a huge resources application for our marketing agents.
Medical Device marketing is a face-to-face industry. Medical Device Representatives (Reps) spend their days going from surgeon to surgeon trying to quickly explain the benefits of their products. One problem Reps have is that surgeons are extremely busy, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for Reps to be fiddling around with brochures or using their laptop to email PDFs. Another challenge for Reps, are that surgeons are much more educated about surgery than the reps they are speaking with.
Our solution is to create an all encompassing, customizable marketing and sales presentation tool on the iPad that gave the Reps the knowledge at their fingertips to quickly present and explain any information that a particular surgeon could use to make a decision to purchase Ethicon surgical products.
Functionality planning and documentation :
I created a clear and organized a site map to plan the project structure for multiple project stake holders. This also served as the hierarchy for digital assets such as product pages, PDFs, and videos.
Program Flow
Functionality documentation
For complex programs, I separated functionality documents to assign to different team members. These images show functionality for a Dropdown Menu linking to marketing tools including emailing clients, bookmarking content within the app, pre-call lists and more.
Home Page Dropdown Menu functionality document
Final Dropdown Menu screenshot
Brand Ambassador
While creating our sales application it was important to establish with my team a clear differentiation throughout a family of products while keeping the global branding strong.
A customizable home screen gives a personal touch to the experience.
Products were then broken down into chapters giving medical device reps quick access to the best materials when on a sales visit.
A Surgeon gives his personal account of the tools.
The menu bar allows quick access for sales reps in a time crunch during a visit with a busy surgeon.
Marketing and Sales Application
The Medical Content
Medically accurate instructional videos were meticulously created be and my team of content specialists, 3d animators and video editors to demonstrate how to use the Ethicon® tools during surgery. We combined live action and 3d animation to highlight the products’ benefits. Anything that couldn’t be shown in live action was created in 3D and the two were edited together.
Each product video we created was polished with title introductions, lower thirds and instructional graphic overlays.
Virtual OR Game
This virtual OR game featured advanced anatomy, medical accuracy, as well as literature, and product highlights.
Users can customize their profiles and connect socially with others.
Our game presented problems that the medical specialists know intimately.
Medical documentation supported the informative experience.
Videos are embedded in the literature.
Video of our 3D animation is viewable at the tap of a finger.
Users unlock more sections with progress.
Patient evaluations set up possible issues that will be found in the OR
Different levels were created to increase the difficulty and gamification of the program.
Multiple products are highlighted in the game.
Our simulation featured functionality that mimicked surgery including gestures such as tool drag and drop, and swiping to make incisions.
Project Results
After a successful launch event, our marketing materials were used be the medical device rep team for years to come.
Not shown ( Event Launch Videos, Trade Show Booth Design).
