Gold
Horizon Therapeutics and Area 23
The Outside In Experiment
Gout isn’t just painful — when crystals build up in vital organs, it’s dangerous. Yet nephrologists and rheumatologists tend to underestimate the pain. This film series effort breaks through, connecting providers to that pain by using AI animation. The judges loved this powerful imagery coupled with gruesome attention to detail.
Using social listening, this effort started with visceral descriptions of gout pain in vivid terms. Hornets. Electricity. Barbed wire. Crushed glass. Using AI capabilities to turn text into images, it fed those patient quotes into the image generator alongside physician descriptions of the anatomical implications of uncontrolled gout. Those include the dangerous buildup of uric acid crystals in vital inner systems and organs.
AI animation then turned those images into a series of films as unsettling as the disease itself.
The campaign seeks to heighten empathy for the patients who are suffering while, in turn, creating urgency to treat the disease. They speak directly to rheumatologists and nephrologists as they highlight the systemic manifestations of the disease that can cause much more harm than doctors may realize.
The films live on an HCP-facing microsite, which the team pushed via email and paid digital display. It achieved a 16% email click-through rate, and viewers spent an average of four minutes on the site. About 20% of viewers revisited the site to rewatch the videos and reimmerse themselves in uncontrolled gout.
“This is super impactful and innovative,” one judge said. “It helps HCPs feel the patient’s pain, maybe even elevating it to true horror.” Best of all? The entire effort cost just $3,000.
Silver
Horizon Therapeutics and Area 23
The Systemic Booth
Doctors are inundated with conference messages, and gout is often low on nephrologists’ list of concerns. So this sneaky effort spread the gout message far beyond the walls of its booth. Floor decals on walkways triggered AR experience on mobile phones, including haptics. It brought mammoth internal organs to life in 3-D, such as a giant heart spewing uric acid crystals on the floor. “Absolutely brilliant,” said one judge — all for 60% less than the cost of the average congress booth.
