Delhi, India
Novartis AG, one of the world's largest and most respected pharmaceutical corporations headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, has a significant and long-standing presence in India through Novartis India Limited. The company's OTC (Over-The-Counter) Business Unit manages a portfolio of trusted consumer healthcare brands sold directly to patients without a prescription. Among its most iconic OTC assets is Otrivin — a market-leading nasal decongestant that has been trusted by healthcare professionals and consumers for several decades across the globe. When Novartis India decided to re-launch Otrivin in an innovative new Nasal Spray format, it required not just a product launch — it demanded a strategic PR partner capable of navigating India's complex pharmaceutical media landscape and turning a clinical product into a compelling, consumer-first health story. That partner was Elevate One Media.
Industry: Pharmaceutical — OTC Healthcare
Reach: Pan-India PR & Media Relations
The pharmaceutical industry presents a uniquely demanding PR environment. Unlike consumer goods or automotive, healthcare PR in India operates within strict regulatory boundaries — where messaging must be scientifically accurate, medically responsible, and simultaneously engaging enough to cut through a cluttered media landscape. Novartis India's OTC Business Unit faced three specific and layered challenges with the Otrivin Nasal Spray re-launch. First, category complexity: India's cough, cold, and allergy segment was a ₹1,550-crore market, but the nasal decongestant sub-segment — at just ₹110 crore — was relatively underpenetrated and poorly understood by mainstream media. Journalists lacked both the technical context and the editorial motivation to cover nasal healthcare as a priority story.[2] Second, perception repositioning: Otrivin had long been established as a tablet-based remedy. Introducing a spray format required shifting deep-seated consumer and journalist perception — from a familiar pill to a new-format, fast-action topical solution that worked within 2 minutes and lasted 10 hours. The "new format, same trusted brand" message needed to be delivered with precision and credibility.[3] Third, influencer credibility: In a market where consumers trust doctors, chemists, and pharmacists above advertising, generating organic editorial coverage in healthcare trade, pharmacy business media, and national lifestyle publications required building a dedicated, Otrivin-friendly journalist and media influencer network — from scratch.
Challenge
Elevate One Media designed and executed a proactive, multi-stakeholder PR programme for Novartis India's Otrivin Nasal Spray launch — one that simultaneously targeted three distinct audiences: mainstream consumers through national media, healthcare professionals through trade and pharmacy publications, and business decision-makers through corporate and business press. We built a bespoke media narrative that translated Otrivin's clinical strengths — direct-acting, fast relief in 2 minutes, effective for 10 hours, available OTC without prescription — into human health stories that editors wanted to publish. We identified and cultivated a core group of healthcare, lifestyle, and business journalists across India's leading publications, creating an Otrivin-favourable media network that generated quality coverage well beyond the launch period.[3]
The strategy rested on four pillars: Thought Leadership (positioning Novartis India's OTC leadership and the growing self-medication trend in India as the broader news hook); Seasonal Storytelling (aligning Otrivin's spray launch with India's peak cold-and-flu winter season to maximise topical media relevance); Stakeholder-Centric Outreach (customising messaging for pharmacy trade media, national health reporters, and business press separately — ensuring depth of coverage across every channel); and Relationship Capital (investing in long-term journalist relationships to build an Otrivin-friendly editorial community, not just one-time transactional placements). Every interaction — press briefings, one-on-ones, product backgrounders — was engineered to communicate Novartis India's corporate credibility alongside Otrivin's product benefits, thereby reinforcing both brand and business equity simultaneously.[4]
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Result |
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250+ Strategic Media Placements Generated — A combination of national newspaper coverage, pharmacy and healthcare trade media features, business press stories, and digital health publications — all delivering Otrivin's core messages with accuracy and authority across India's most influential editorial platforms. |
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₹2.5 Crore Total Media Evaluation Achieved — The campaign generated an estimated total media value of approximately ₹2 Crore 50 Lakh — delivering exceptional return on PR investment and demonstrating the power of proactive media relations over paid advertising in the sensitive pharmaceutical category. |
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Otrivin-Favourable Core Media Group Created — Beyond clip-count metrics, the campaign's most enduring achievement was the creation of a dedicated network of healthcare and pharmacy journalists across India who became credible, informed advocates for the Otrivin brand — ensuring sustained, high-quality coverage that outlasted the launch cycle and built long-term share of voice for Novartis India's OTC business. |
Elevate One Media's PR mandate for Novartis India's Otrivin Nasal Spray stands as a landmark case in Indian pharmaceutical communications. In a category where media access is limited, regulatory constraints are real, and consumer trust is everything, we delivered 250+ strategic placements, ₹2.5 Crore in earned media value, and built lasting editorial relationships that continued to amplify Otrivin's brand story season after season. By aligning clinical credibility with consumer storytelling, we helped Novartis India turn a product re-launch into a category-defining health narrative — establishing Otrivin Nasal Spray as the gold standard OTC nasal decongestant in India's growing self-medication market.[5]
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