Boehringer’s Syrum Facebook game launch date released
pharmafile | August 22, 2012 | News story | Medical Communications | Boehringer, Facebook, Syrum
Boehringer Ingelheim has announced the launch date of its social media game Syrum.
John Pugh, Boehringer’s director of digital communications and lead on the Syrum project, said his firm would be launching a beta version of the game on 13 September at the PSFK Conference in London.
Syrum has been designed to promote the industry as a whole, whilst also using it for Boehringer’s own marketing purposes.
The game, which will be used solely on Facebook, was supposed to be launched last autumn, but has been beset by delays.
Syrum works much the same way as popular Facebook game ‘Farmville’ does, but just swaps farms and crops for laboratories and molecules. Gamers play as an R&D pharma company that has to develop drugs and put them into clinical trials, mimicking the real industry process.
And there are also social media aspects to it as players can link up with their Facebook friends and give them gifts – these can then be used to customise their offices and laboratories.
Players can also trade and collaborate to help create better compounds, but on the flipside they also have the option to steal their competitors’ staff and drugs to get ahead.
Syrum to help with pharma marketing
Boehringer has developed the game to be used as a vehicle to deliver disease awareness and marketing campaigns to users, notably ones for COPD and stroke – two diseases the firm caters for.
Syrum has been eagerly anticipated within digital circles, as it is the first time pharma has used gamification for a marketing model – but using games to help drive marketing messages has been used by other businesses for a number of years.
Ben Adams is the reporter for Pharmafocus and InPharm.com and author of the DigiBlog site. He can be contacted via: email or Twitter.
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