Continental Magazine: Idea Makers

Current Issue | October 2006

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Marketing a Miracle
A Positive Reaction

For Berlex’s Ludger Heeck, medicine is the message

IT’S NOT UNUSUAL TO HEAR a doctor profess that his or her mission is to make a difference. The ability to affect people’s lives in a direct, one-on-one manner is one of the inspirations that draws people into the medical profession. Ludger Heeck took a more mass-market approach. The German-born and -educated scientist — he holds a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Muenster — decided to combine his scientific background with marketing muscle to help make an impact on a larger scale.

“My passion is to develop and bring to market innovative medicines that change patients’ lives,” says Heeck, 49. He’s in the right position to do that. As vice president and general manager of therapeutics for Wayne, N.J.–based Berlex, the U.S. affiliate of pharmaceutical company Schering AG (which was recently acquired by Bayer), Heeck was the marketing mind behind Berlex’s groundbreaking launch of Betaseron in 1993. Betaseron was the first drug approved to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, a disease of the central nervous system that has no known cure and affects 2.5 million worldwide, causing irreversible damage.

Promoting Betaseron was an appropriate project for Heeck. “I went to university to focus on science, but I snuck into business classes as well,” he says. “I found [business] interesting without having a clear idea of whether I would ever need it.”

Heeck went to work for Schering AG in Berlin because of his love for science. “I wanted to go in the more medical direction,” he says, “because I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives, and I thought I could do that best in the medical arena.” Schering gave him the opportunity to combine his dual interests in marketing and medicine.

Quickly Heeck realized that instead of healing people one-on-one, like a practicing physician might, he could instead equip physicians with information that could help them better treat and heal their patients. His biggest challenge was getting the word out to doctors about Betaseron.

“At the time of the launch, we had to do a huge education effort, not only from the patient side but from the physician side as well,” says Heeck, a married father of two teenagers. “Many of the doctors had grown up in an environment where no treatment was available, and now for the first time there was an effective therapy.”

Knowing that he needed to convince doctors that Betaseron could fit into their “treatment algorithm,” Heeck spread the word through channels that the medical community would find trustworthy and noteworthy — namely, top medical conferences and scientific journals. He also had to speak directly with leaders in the neurology field to explain how a drug like Betaseron could improve patients’ lives. “As in every communication in consumer marketing,” he says, describing the effort, “every single doctor needed to get the information more than once before it [sunk] in and led to a change in behavior.”

Thirteen years after Betaseron’s successful launch in the U.S., Heeck retains his excitement about the drug and his role in marketing it. “Science doesn’t stand still,” he says. “At the end of the decade, we learned from science again that if you treat MS earlier and earlier, the better the outcome seems to be.”

And better patient outcomes are precisely what a medical professional like Heeck looks for to know that his mission to improve patients’ lives has been a success.

— Leah Ingram

David Gilbert

The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission’s David Gilbert keeps the city competitive by promoting amateur athletics

DAVID GILBERT BELIEVES IN CLEVELAND — so much so that he’s lent his likeness to a new ad campaign for the city. Sure, he groans good-naturedly about his “life-size” visibility, but he recognizes the importance of enhancing the city’s image. Gilbert, 39, is president and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission (GCSC), an organization that works to raise Cleveland’s national profile by bringing amateur athletic events to town. As a small nonprofit, the GCSC needs a leader who can move the ball, and Gilbert’s enthusiasm and attention to detail have earned him a reputation for getting the job done. “My goal is to clear out my inbox at the end of every day,” he says, “because one phone call or e-mail can move a project forward.” (Continental is the official airline of the GCSC.)

In bringing major events like the 2004 International Children’s Games (ICG) to Cleveland, Gilbert has proven his ability to attract global attention to the area. “[ICG] wasn’t just a sports competition,” he says. “It was also the biggest international event in the city’s history.”

Other big events are also on the horizon. In April 2007, Cleveland will host the NCAA Women’s Final Four, and Gilbert plans to make the event the centerpiece of a year-long celebration of women in sports. In addition, six of Cleveland’s top CEOs recently convened to discuss a possible bid to bring in the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, an event that, according to Gilbert, would cost $35 to $40 million to host. It’s a big price tag, but like a good coach, Gilbert thinks in terms of teamwork and victories, not dollar signs. “My goal is to have any event in Cleveland be more successful than it has been anywhere else,” he says. “In order to do that we have to engage as many people as possible to help.”

Gilbert’s network of boosters allows him to build teams of business and community leaders willing to donate their time, money, and talent to GCSC events. “Dave has a knack for promoting events and being very inclusive about it,” says Dennis Roche, president of the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland. “He thinks big, and his enthusiastic, can-do attitude is exactly what Cleveland needs,” adds Frank Sullivan, CEO of RPM Inc.

Wayne Hill, president of public relations firm Edward Howard & Co. and a member of the GCSC Board of Trustees, has seen firsthand how Gilbert inspires his volunteers and makes people feel good about contributing. “What people see is his genuine enthusiasm and energy,” says Hill. “People like to have confidence that if they volunteer, the project has a fighting chance at success.”

Gilbert recognizes that enthusiasm and a positive attitude are key to motivating volunteers. “We’re not always going to be the organization that people most believe in, but those who do get involved see something they can personally get out of the experience, whether it’s giving back or making a new business contact.”

Gilbert’s passion, it would seem, is making the most of everything — be it his team or his day. While some are taking their first sips of coffee, he has already begun his morning, getting out the door before 5 a.m. for a run.

Now Gilbert is poised for a shot at the big time: Though Cleveland is seen as a long shot to host the 2008 Republican National Convention, Roche has suggested Gilbert be included in the planning process, “because he’s such a good organizer.”

Not only that, Gilbert is a gamer. “I love competing for Cleveland,” he says. “When we’re successful, our events leave a halo effect on the community and how it feels about itself.”

— Wendy A. Hoke

Joan Kim

Joan Kim and 826NYC unlock writing superpowers in students

IN THE BACK OF BROOKLYN SUPERHERO SUPPLY CO., past the cape department and secret-identity kits, through a secret bookcase door, a buzz emanates from the hidden lair of 826NYC. In reality a nonprofit youth writing program, 826NYC is the flashy storefront’s no-nonsense alter ego. But on this Thursday afternoon in Gotham, Joan Kim, 826NYC’s director of education, looks like anything but a caped crusader. Dressed in khakis and a blouse, she sits calmly at one of the lab’s kid-sized tables, chatting with students and their volunteer tutors.

Joan Kim “Our main focus,” Kim says, “is to get the kids passionate about writing, or making a movie or a radio play, or coming up with a video game or a comic book.” A tranquil presence with a cautious grin and a deadpan mischievousness, Kim taught English in China and worked for a small financial publishing house before joining 826NYC when the facility opened in September 2004. Today, she works with five staffers and a legion of about 650 volunteers whose everyday disguises include everything from lawyer to homemaker. Some of the volunteers helped construct the lab and store from scratch.

“For the kids, the superhero store gives them the idea that anything can happen,” says Kim. “Anything is possible.” It’s basically the old carnival barker’s trick, the same one employed for years by villains trying to lure comic book heroes into deadly traps. “The store is so weird — it’s a legitimate, working superhero supply store — that people come in and ask what it is. Then we tell them about the writing program.”

Intended for children ages 6 to 18, the writing program includes evening and weekend workshops and after-school Drop-In Tutoring sessions during which students can receive one-on-one tutoring or assistance with a personal project, like a screenplay. In one workshop, H. Mildew’s Story Factory, students write their own stories — “usually about talking pancakes or robot monkeys,” Kim says — and take home a bound copy of all the works. Best of all for the kids, many of whom come from underprivileged backgrounds, the program is free.

826NYC is part of 826 National, an umbrella group that emerged from 826 Valencia, a San Francisco tutoring program named for its street address. 826 Valencia boasts a pirate supply store, naturally, and was founded in 2002 by a team lead by Nínive Calegari, a teacher, and best-selling author Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius). Today, there are six 826 centers nationwide; the others are in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, and Ann Arbor, Mich.

Aside from the superhero store, which literally pays the rent, additional funding for 826NYC comes from an array of fundraising events such as the recent Revenge of the Book Eaters tour, which featured friends-of-826 like Jon Stewart, David Byrne, and Sarah Vowell. The program has also received some foundation grants, and with recently secured support from Chase and Comedy Central, Kim and the 826NYC team hope to expand the center’s corporate funding.

But 826NYC doesn’t measure its success by the size of its bank account or its fundraising muscle. “All we do is focus on work,” Kim says. “The fact that the kids keep coming back — that they like to come back — is a huge measure of success for us.”

— Greg Lalas

Photographs by: Catrina Genovese (Heeck); Roy Ritchie (Gilbert); Peter Murphy (Kim)