The news: AbbVie's Botox Cosmetic sales grew for a third straight quarter, helping offset continued weakness in its aesthetics portfolio, per its Q2 earnings results. Botox Cosmetic sales rose 5.2% YoY to $728 million, while Juvederm filler sales fell 6.0%, leaving total aesthetics revenue essentially flat at $1.28 billion (+0.3%).

Why it matters: Botox Cosmetic's ongoing sales uptick follows AbbVie increased marketing efforts to bolster the brand.

AbbVie launched "The One & Only" campaign promoting Botox last fall, calling it the brand's largest-ever marketing effort across linear TV, CTV, digital, social, and out-of-home. It also reinforced national advertising through local practice marketing and its Alle loyalty program.

However, AbbVie's filler business faces a different challenge. Juvederm sales continue to decline despite the company's "Naturally You" campaign launch around the same time as the Botox effort. The educational effort leans on influencers and physicians to help counter the filler categories’ broader challenges around media and consumer perceptions of an “overfilled” or unnatural look and fillers migrating from the injection site.

Implications for pharma brands: For AbbVie, the differing results for Botox and Juvederm underscore two distinct marketing challenges: driving growth for an established brand like Botox and rebuilding confidence in fillers through Juvederm.

Botox's sales gains suggest that sustained national and local investments can help reinforce demand for an established brand in a category where consumer demand has remained relatively resilient. Meanwhile, Juvederm's continued decline underscores its very different marketing challenge: changing perceptions of the filler category itself. Reassuring consumers, rebuilding confidence, and reeducating the market may prove more challenging than driving demand in a healthier category.

This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Not a subscriber? Click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.