Why is this work relevant for Integrated?

The campaign was completely integrated, using a mix of media channels to deliver our message and reach our audience. Our goal was to remove social stigmas around IVF, to do this we rewrote the story of where babies come from and made IVF as natural as sex. To tell our story we utilised multiple media platforms with our story adapting to suit each placement. The campaign ran across film, social, digital, EDM, search, owned assets, patient and doctor collateral, and we even wrote a children’s book. Each piece worked in unison to deliver our message and achieve our campaign goal.

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

In Australia, we are limited by some key restrictions around healthcare advertising. Advertising regulations dictate that we cannot solicit any patient testimonial whatsoever within the communications. Moreover, we cannot be interpreted as giving any form of medical advice in consumer-facing advertising.

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

Our targets were those in the market for IVF and Healthcare professionals. For both, we needed to increase Awareness and Consideration of Genea. To do this we designed our work to make a distinctive brand statement while at the same time extending through the funnel and driving further customer engagement.

Background

Genea, a world-leading fertility clinic, saw their Australian market share slipping. Once an industry leader, their competitors’ share of voice had increased and relegated Genea to the middle of the pack. To make matters worse, IVF advertising in Australia is a sea of sameness with each brand following the same category conventions. With brands and their marketing interchangeable in the minds of patients, media budgets play a huge factor in market share. Unfortunately, Genea’s media budget meant we couldn’t outshout our competition, so the only option was to outthink them and find a way to make Genea a market leader once again. Our brief and objectives covered four main points: Make Genea top of mind among the IVF audience Broaden awareness of the brand outside those currently thinking about fertility treatments (especially among a younger demographic) Reaffirm Genea as a market leader Drive an increase in Genea consultations

Describe the creative idea

When it comes to conception, society focuses on natural sex between a man and a woman. Yet 1 in 20 children are conceived via IVF. With a lack of public acknowledgment that this is a normal way to have a baby, people with fertility issues feel stigmatised and unable to talk about it. To regain our leadership positioning and resonate among patients, we wanted to break this stigma. So we rewrote the story of ‘Where babies come from’ and made IVF as natural as sex. It launched with a playful, yet provocative film to drive the conversation — showing the real story of fertility struggles, before revealing IVF as a natural way to conceive. A children’s book tackled the same subject. We released them directly to IVF patients who shared our message. Many felt empowered to break their silence for the first time. The story continued across every media channel.

Describe the strategy

Our target audience is broad, anyone in the IVF funnel. Topline, it’s females 25-49, with a focus on the lower age range. But Genea is inclusive for everyone who needs fertility help — no matter age, gender, or sexual orientation. Due to our limited media budget, we had to find a way to resonate with this audience. So, we took on the stigma around fertility issues and rewrote the story of where babies come from to make IVF as natural as sex. Our story was based on real insights from patients. Our strategy wasn’t to sanitise it for TV broadcast standards, rather to make it highly provocative and put our story in the hands of the IVF community. Patients past and present shared our message. Many broke their silence on the subject for the first time. The story continued across multiple channels to maximise reach of our target.

Describe the execution

We launched in September 2020 with the main activity continuing until January. Although our story is always there to be shared. The social film and book kicked-off the campaign being directly shared with our IVF community, patients past and present, from there they themselves became the media channel. The story was also told across multiple placements including high-impact video placements to generate reach & awareness, supported with highly targeting digital & social amplification to further build reach & frequency. The campaign was structured in two ways, brand (prospecting) to increase overall brand & category awareness and performance layers (conversion) to ultimately influence & drive bookings.

List the results

We started in the IVF community, but soon the story of where babies come from was being talked about in the wider community and was covered by national TV news. This resulted in an earned media reach of 5.1 million. (In Australian terms, that’s ¼ of the population). We reached 92% of our target audience on social media and increased patient engagement by +27% MoM leading to an increase in site traffic increased by 121% Importantly the story of where babies come from was no longer just about natural conception. Genea managed to broaden the story to include IVF too.