Tuesday, 06 February 2007

Following weeks of planning, Richmond Pharmacology has launched an exciting new advertising campaign as part of its strategy to recruit Japanese volunteers. A photo shoot with two Japanese models took place at one of our units, and the pictures will appear on our website and in a range of magazines and newspapers.

Richmond Pharmacology conducts a number of bridging studies – studies designed to compare the impact of drugs on different populations, some of which are Japanese bridging studies.

Japanese volunteers are renowned for being particularly difficult to recruit to take part in medical trials for a number of reasons. There are only approximately 60,000 Japanese in the UK. In addition to the statistics, there are also the cultural hurdles to overcome which is why Richmond Pharmacology works closely with a number of Japanese agencies and consultants and has its own in-house Japanese Recruitment Team.

For our new advertising campaign we hired two Japanese models, one female: Tsubaki Yura and one male: Masato Kamo. You may recognise Masato, he starred in the film United 93, a recreation of the last flight of one of the aircraft involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In the past Richmond Pharmacology has taken a rather direct approach in its advertising for Japanese volunteers that didn't necessarily explain what Richmond Pharmacology does or even what exactly clinical trials are. The new campaign takes on a very different attitude: educating the Japanese about what medical trials are and the processes that take place through a series of questions and answers.

The models were photographed in performing every day tasks at different stages of taking part in a medical trial. Take a look at the storyboard to see the final results…