After our extremely successful work on Movantik HCP, AstraZeneca asked us to take over their US patient advertising from the previous agency sans pitch. No work from the other agency was deemed worth proceeding with, so we started from scratch 9 months behind schedule.
Through the next several years I led the creation of an unbranded campaign, a branded campaign, an unbranded Super Bowl 50 commercial, and a new branded campaign. All had full 360 degree rollouts and met with tremendous success.
Movantik is indicated for opioid-induced constipation (OIC) in chronic pain patients. These are patients who have an ongoing pain problem (for example a broken back, fibromyalgia, or MS) necessitating opioid treatment to live their lives in a semi-normal manner. These patients have suffered incredibly, can't we just take one concern away from them at least?
All of this work was based very closely on numerous rounds of patient insight learnings and market research. Patients have self-treated constipation previously and don't understand that OIC has a different cause meaning it won't go away as long as they are on their pain meds. We needed them to understand why an over-the-counter laxative was never going to work well. Their doctors don't dedicate much, if any, time to telling them about OIC because it's low priority compared to their pain and addiction concerns. And doctors don't usually understand how bad the constipation affects the patients. This led us to the importance of unbranded education.
Envy ran as an unbranded extension of the original unbranded OIC metaphor campaign (snail, lock, and stopper - see below) during Super Bowl 50. It garnered write ups in every major news service, had over 2 BILLION impressions, was listed by Ad Week as one of the top 6 moments of the Super Bowl (above Beyoncé!), and started a national conversation as diverse as the White House Chief of Staff, Bill Maher, and chronic pain patients.
Sales of Movantik went up 25% the following week, 15% the week after, and 15% again the third week.
For the Movantik patient branded campaign, we were challenged with having a true cross-customer connection with the successful HCP work previously developed. The campaign used the same illustrative New Yorker style that had worked so well on that end, but with different messaging and strategic angle. This campaign took the patient through their own journey of learning about OIC and then discovery of Movantik.
It was hard to miss on-air due to the style and the giant, charming opioid pill. Every time the ad buy cycled, sales went up.
Based on market research and audience feedback from the previous spot running for 9 months, we found some ways to improve on it. We amplified the intro for more effect, clarified the pronunciation, streamlined some components, and created a new simpler MOA. All while still keeping the charm and personality of the campaign that resonated so well.