Novartis’ chief marketing officer on the drugmaker’s Super Bowl ad debut

The Super Bowl is three days away and Novartis is gearing up for its advertising debut at the big game.

The Swiss drugmaker announced last week that it will air a 60-second ad during Super Bowl LIX to raise breast cancer awareness and encourage more screenings, specifically targeting women aged 40 and younger. 

The spot features actress Wanda Sykes, who is a breast cancer survivor, as well as actress and musician Hailee Steinfeld, who is a breast cancer awareness advocate.

The ad was created by Omnicom subsidiary Merkley and Partners, while Publicis’ N2 serves as the pharma giant’s media agency of record.

Unlike other brands that release their ads days or weeks ahead of the big game, Novartis is waiting to unveil its commercial during the contest, according to Gail Horwood, the company’s chief marketing and customer experience officer.

In the meantime, the drugmaker released two 15-second teasers featuring Sykes and Steinfeld to drum up interest.

Though the ad isn’t out in the world just yet, Horwood said there will be a surprise guest appearance in addition to Sykes and Steinfeld: Kristin Juszczyk.

She is the wife of San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk and a fashion designer who made headlines after designing a jacket Taylor Swift wore during the 2023 season. 

Like Steinfeld, who is engaged to Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, Juszczyk has a connection to the NFL that makes her familiar to fans. 

However, Horwood said the brand included her in the ad since one of her close family members passed away from breast cancer.

She stressed that Novartis wanted the ad to feature ambassadors impacted by breast cancer and noted that Emmy Award-winning director M.J. Delaney helped the vision come to life. 

“We wanted our message to be conveyed by authentic storytellers — people who had a stake in ensuring that screening or knowing your risk was important,” she said. 

This isn’t a one-off effort

Horwood said the company is taking a strategic and holistic approach to its Super Bowl ad and considers it part of the broader, social-focused Your Attention, Please campaign. This larger initiative kicked off the same day the ad was announced and builds on the mission of reaching at-risk women and encouraging breast cancer screenings.

Horwood noted that while the commercial will get the eyeballs, Novartis has built an ecosystem around the ad to give it a longer tail.

This includes a concerted push on social media platforms, a campaign website with educational resources around breast cancer and partnerships with patient advocacy groups like the Susan G. Komen, Living Beyond Breast Cancer, TOUCH (The Black Breast Cancer Alliance) and Breastcancer.org.

Though the Super Bowl is routinely the most-watched live event of the year, it hasn’t been the favored spot for pharma advertising, a point that Horwood is all too familiar with.

From her perspective, the business case for Novartis running an ad during the Super Bowl is based on the ability to reach a large, engaged audience of women in order to drive action on an important health issue that affects millions nationwide.

While some brands may feel that advertising at the game isn’t the most prudent way to educate consumers on a particular medical condition or promote a medication, Novartis has a different view of the situation.

Awareness vs. advertising a drug

Breast cancer isn’t a rare disease, it’s the second-most common form of cancer in the U.S. and the second-leading cause of cancer death among American women.

Novartis is using this ad as a way to raise awareness of the disease and proactive care measures rather than promote a product like its breast cancer drug Kisqali. 

Horwood said prioritizing early detection of the disease and clinical intervention is just as critical as having medicines like Kisqali available to patients later on in the process.

She added that Novartis’ leadership has sought to emphasize the importance of early detection and knowledge in breast health management. 

By highlighting this issue in front of a record number of women viewers, she said Novartis hopes to improve breast health outcomes and maximize its impact.

“We don’t want to just show up at the game, we’d love to say we showed up at the game, people received the message and they took action,” she said. 

Going forward, Novartis has plans to explore more advertising opportunities in live sports. Horwood said live sports are among the only growing areas in entertainment and provide an accessible on-ramp for engaging with consumers about health problems and critical disease states. 

This story first appeared on Campaign's sister title MM+M.