I don’t know what to think of Sanofi Aventis’ new AmbienCR commercials which tease people with a 30-second TV spot that features a rooster (engaging in odd nighttime rituals) and then directs them to SilenceYourRooster.com. If you haven’t seen the spots they are posted on the “SYR” page. 

The campaign was designed by Saatchi & Saatchi and while it is certainly creative and has been successful at driving traffic and creating buzz, is it really going to convince people to try AmbienCR? 

Ambien went off patent around the beginning of May, 2007. The last full week that Ambien was protected by patent in the US, the drug had sales of $55.4 million and a ~42% share of prescription sleeping pills. Two weeks later, Ambien sales had fallen to $18.1 million and its market share had slipped to 12.5% of prescriptions. Now Sanofi is trying to convince consumers that Ambien CR, the extended-release version of the drug (still under patent protection) is worth a huge premium over the generic. A month’s supply of Ambien CR costs $109 compared with less than $20 for the generic version. 

The SYR website is offering the pharmaceutical industry’s old standby…free samples…but I am not confident those will lead to long-term repeat prescriptions. 

Personally I was a bit irritated by the ad…the commercials created a certain level of expectations…and when I made the effort to actually remember the commercial and visit the website I was a bit disappointed. Think campaigns like this are double-edged swords…the advertising vehicle/message needs to match the product and in this case I think there was a disconnect.