The Campaign

Rosacea is not just a condition that affects the skin. It is a condition that affects the sufferer’s state of mind. Interestingly it also affects how the sufferer is perceived by others.. and how others act towards them...which was the insight for this campaign. Doctors not educated on the psychological effects, often do not realise how devastating it can be to the suffer... This ad campaign was really developed to drive how sufferers feel, and the fact that they can take an active role in helping to put this wrong to right. It draws on the fact that often patients feel ostracised, and discriminated against. The twist being people judge on the colour of skin not being racial discrimination but disease discrimination.

Creative Execution

First we found a rosacea sufferer so we could us a real patient in the video. we filmed her in a studio - with no make up. We created the drama of the piece by blocking out her face into silhouette so you would think she is coloured and the discrimination is racial - until the lights come on and her rosacea is revealed. The video was pushed out to healthcare professionals through reps, banner ads that click through and print advertisements. It was housed on a microsite where more information about Mivarso, the treatment could be downloaded.

Although this campaign was created on a shoe string budget in Australia, everybody who sees it loves the impact. The global client has shown interest in adopting this from our local market and using it globally. It is early to be able to track sales, however the first quarter has shown increases. The campaign only started running the first week in April on a website, with print ads, digital ad click through and reps all driving hcps to the site. We did receive this feedback from our client. "I was also in a call where one Dermatology Registrar asked if the lady in the picture had make up on – when I explained it was a real patient etc. his reaction was ‘wow’ and he immediately took a lot of interest in Mivarso."

To motivate doctors to take rosacea as seriously as their patients, we created an integrated campaign to show the impact of skin colour on people's perceptions and the prejudice it invokes. Two real rosacea patients were featured throughout an online video, print ads, leave-behind and website. These elements worked online, and in surgery to push out the message "Help end the discrimination." The budget was small - integration was key. With each, new messages around how rosacea affects patients were seeded - building the story in the online video to show the effects of rosacea are more than skin deep.

Our strategy was to find two rosacea sufferers, so they could be the voice of campaign. We researched how people suffer through patient studies and also blogs, and there were some consistent themes about lack of confidence and how they felt judged. It was important that we represented both male and female and used the photography assets through different mediums so you would be getting the same message and image across the board. Although we were originally briefed on only a print ad - we felt it was really important to literally give these patients a voice. So despite a very limited budget we made a video for online so doctors could really understand the impact of rosacea on their lives. Then we took the creative into sales leave-hinds too.