Gold
Genentech and 21Grams
Flair Balance
In a category typically dominated by poignant tear-jerkers, this funny video stole the show with an unlikely subject — the lengthy safety information most pharma marketers regard as a burden.
Hemlibra, a treatment for hemophilia A, needed to reach young men — an audience famous for tuning ads out. It
decided to launch via the first ever pharma-branded live Twitch event. That meant it needed to find a way to incorporate a full read of lengthy safety information without losing its gamer audience.
Enter Smitherton Gledhill, a character invented as the foremost expert in safety videos, delivering the required safety information like no one had before. In a series of four short videos featuring the quirky and somewhat self-obsessed Smitherton, it presented the drug’s important safety information in a fun yet compliant way.
The judges love this work. “A perfect performance meets perfect material,” says one. “Brilliant placement and targeting. I’m jealous of this work.”
“One of the most original campaigns I’ve ever seen in healthcare,” says another.
The first Twitch Zero Challenge event attracted over half a million viewers. It increased traffic to the Hemlibra site, including sign-ups for more information about the medication. And viewers loved it. “Better than a Super Bowl ad,” notes one.
During the event, the brand saw a jump in chat activity and viewership when Smitherton was on screen. This is groundbreaking for the branded pharma environment. Safety information has often been seen as a distraction from content. Flair Balance makes this important context not just watchable, but also entertaining.
Silver
Genentech and Syneos Health Communications
Claiming New Spaces for People Living With Disabilities
Disabled people remain largely unrepresented. Those with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare, severe, progressive, neurodegenerative disease, feel invisible. Using music, this touching film addresses the community’s critical need for connection and self-reflection. It garnered 825,000 total views, more than 2,000 stories and 37 earned national stories.
