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Women eager to define themselves

Defineyourself.ca, an online community designed to give women aged 35-55 a forum to talk about aging issues, has brought in impressive results for pharmaceutical company Medicis Aesthetic Holdings and Swingthink, the Toronto agency that specializes in marketing to women.

A quarter of the way into a 10-week campaign, the site - which features webisodes starring six women, discussion forums and resources including doctor consultation - has surpassed expectations for Medicis, maker of the cosmetic filler Restylane. "We're very pleased," Medicis marketing director Alan Chan tells MIC. "After two weeks, we already have over 30,000 unique visitors to our website. We have attracted a lot of interest, and people are watching how this evolves."

Chan says Medicis' goal was not to push Restylane, but to create discussion and offer options. "We've seen a lot of extreme examples on the subject of aging, like the Dove campaign. They're doing a great job, but they're only representing one side of the opinion out there. And we see the need for a space for women to participate from different perspectives and help each other."

Medicis promoted the campaign with online advertising on Google and Sympatico, postings on YouTube and Flickr, a partnership with Chatelaine magazine and some outdoor media. As well as Swingthink, which created the concept, the company used Elsevier Interactive, which had previously designed a campaign to introduce doctors to Restylane.

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