Janssen Pharmaceutical wanted to revamp its online resources for both schizophrenia patients and medical professionals, but was aware that individuals with the condition often found it difficult to talk it.
To research this group, the company and its agency partner used netnography to 'scrape' and analyse the content of social conversations and public forum discussions about the subject.
Insights from this work were supplemented by knowledge from client teams in local markets. The resulting analysis was used to redesign the company's key website for schizophrenia away from a one size fits all approach to reflect the variety of patients' needs. The learnings were also used to create a new tool, based on a sympathetic guide figure, which proved popular with the target audience.
This case is published as part of the Social Works initiative, which brings together the IPA, the Marketing Society and MRS, with support from Facebook and Twitter, to identify and share best practice in social media activities by brands.