Gold
Boehringer Ingelheim and Area 23
The Unwearable Collection
Red carpets and fashion runways aren’t the images most companies would invoke for treating a severe skin condition. But that’s the reason this campaign caught the judges’ eyes.
Generalized Pustular Psoriasis (GPP) is rare and frightening. Within two hours, it can cause open wounds to erupt all over a patient’s body and require urgent hospitalization. And because they’ve seldom seen it, many dermatologists don’t realize it’s potentially deadly.
To convey how harrowing the experience is for patients, this campaign turned to Bart Hess, a Dutch designer best known for outfitting Lady Gaga. The Unwearable Collection is the resulting fashion gallery inspired by actual patients’ experiences with GPP.
Hess translated the painful words of real patients into a fashion collection, luring visitors in with beautiful designs meant to appeal to the high aesthetic values of dermatologists.
Even the launch invoked fashion hype. Boehringer Ingelheim introduced the effort at a leading conference and teased attendees to build excitement and drive booth attendance. QR codes within the event drove visitors to a disease education website that gives more information about GPP.
One judge calls this the most memorable booth seen in a 25-year-career. “I’ve never seen such an incredible and artistic way to express patient voices,” says another. “Bold, tasteful — and amazing stopping power,” says a third.
The avant-garde approach made it the most visited booth at the convention, with long lines, visited by 2,500 of the 7,000 dermatologists at the conference. And the company’s website experienced a 325% increase in web traffic.
Silver
Ad Council/American Lung Association and Hill Holliday Health
Get Your Head Out of the Cloud
E-cigarettes have created an epidemic of nicotine addiction among U.S. teens, with 27% of high schoolers and 11% of middle schoolers vaping. The consequences are potentially deadly, and parents underestimate their kids’ chance to vape. This impressive effort targets those parents. It worked, boosting awareness of the risks by 70%.
