Korean nutraceutical company TopHealth, together with white-label nutraceutical manufacturer PharmaLinea and Pharmabros—a collective of pharmacist influencers, took home the award this year.
Having pharmacist influencers who openly discuss the pros and cons of their products is a key reason driving consumer trust and eventually sales, said TopHealth CEO Tae Yoon Kim.
As part of the collaboration, pharmacist influencers from Pharmabros tried TopHealth’s health supplements for at least three months. Pharmabros was founded by Lim Byeol and Go Sang-on, who is also a pharmacist influencer.
Depending on the pharmacists’ personal experience and knowledge of the products, they will then select products to sell on their social media platforms, such as Instagram, or conduct live Q&A sessions.
“What they do is that they do not hide any information, for example, when they are talking about our magnesium oxide, because it contains oxide, it could cause a bit of gastrointestinal (GI) trouble,” Kim told NutraIngredients.
“They did not hide this piece of information, and they tell it to consumers openly. Although there are some GI side effects, the product works, is easy to take, and is cost-effective.”
Sales results
Consumer trust in pharmacist influencers is reflected in the sales results.
Kim said the pharmacist influencers managed to move 10,000 units of TopHealth’s products in just four to five days—something that usually takes a month when working with a major offline retailer.
He believes that working with pharmacist influencers can open doors for small to medium-sized nutraceutical companies that lack a marketing budget or the ability to seal endorsement deals with big celebrities.
“In South Korea, there are lots of major players like pharmaceutical companies that have a lot of access and a lot of marketing budget,” Kim said.
“Pharmabros has now opened a lot of opportunities, not only for my company TopHealth, but also for other small and medium-sized companies that have good quality, fact-based or science-backed products but do not have huge advertising budgets.”
Consumers open their minds to experts
Kim believes that partnering with pharmacist influencers provides more trusted insights compared to working with celebrities.
“I think consumers are getting a bit tired [of celebrity endorsements] because most players say that their products are the best and do not have any side effects, but it’s actually not true,” he said.
“Consumers, when they listen to experts like pharmacist influencers who openly talk about side effects, they understand it, and they open their minds.”
Commenting on the selection of the campaign as a winner, the judges said they were “impressed with the creative ideation and execution of the campaign, along with detailed insights on its effectiveness in meeting a clearly-defined objective.”
The two other finalists of the award were Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group’s “Intangible Cultural Heritage Lantern Packaging of Satine fresh milk, which can be torn open for good fortune” and “You don’t know anything about pre workout!” by TSI Group and MusclePro Nutrition.
Expansion into the West
Kim said that he hopes to emulate the success seen in South Korea in new markets such as the United States and Europe and plans to continue working with Pharmabros in these regions as part of their “Go Global Korean Pharmacists” initiative.
Currently, Pharmabros is marketing and selling about 60% of TopHealth’s products, including magnesium oxide and iron supplements, which come in various formats, such as powder and liquid.
Watch the video to find out more.
