2022 Winners & Shortlists

Describe any restrictions or regulations regarding Healthcare/RX/Pharma communications in your country/region including:

All patient communications need to be approved by the Ministry of Health and Prevention as per their guidelines. All medical claims are to be referenced and scientifically proven. No communication of any medical product directly to patients is allowed, only communication linked to the disease & condition itself is permitted.

Describe the target audience and why your work is relevant to them.

Patients that are unaware of the condition called Wet Age-related Macular Degeneration (wAMD) which leads to vision impairment such as distorted vision, centrally-visible black dots, and visual difficulty in the capability in performing everyday tasks.

Background

wAMD is a debilitating disease that can lead to vision loss if left untreated. There is a low level of awareness on the disease and more particularly on the burden of the disease in interfering with patients everyday life. The brief was to shed light on the emotional aspect of the disease, magnify the suffering of patients and draw attention to the importance of proper diagnosis, management and disease awareness. Our objective was to raise awareness on wAMD, visualize patient suffering and show the possibilities of how the right treatment can transform the lives of wAMD patients.

Describe the strategy

In order to reach the target audience which comprised wAMD patients, we needed to communicate directly with them and showcase the power of wAMD treatment and how it could change their lives for the better. Since wAMD patients aren't able to use digital channels effectively, we targeted both caregivers and wAMD patients on social channels to maximize reach of our message. We approached actual patients and understood their stories and challenges and their life after the wAMD treatment and used that to create emotional testimonial films and other communication that leveraged a unique font based on the collaborative work by field experts, the Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science journal. The journal published fascinating results that cemented our selection of the Macular font that would help wAMD patients read better. The font was then showcased on the testimonial videos for enhanced accessibility for our audience.

Describe the execution

To maximize impact, the launch of the campaign was planned to coincide with World Sight Day on October 14th, 2021 to amplify the conversation around wAMD. We created specialized World Sight Day content to have the maximum reach and impact for our message. The emotional content and first person narrative of the wAMD patient brought to life the message of hope and positivity. The campaign was broadcasted on local congress channels of Emirates Society Of Ophthalmology & Evolving Practice of Ophthalmology Middle East Conference in addition to Novartis Facebook & Instagram channels.

List the results

As a result of our efforts on World Sight Day, scheduled and attended eye appointments went up as much as 35% compared to previous years and as a result we were able to help over 450 patients get diagnosed with wAMD in time. Moreover, the entire campaign and activation resulted in an estimated 20% increase in awareness of the wAMD patient burden.