Novo Nordisk, Cohn & Wolfe, Closerlook, BWR PR, Spark Foundry, and PHM
Get Real About Diabetes
This year’s Titanium Award goes to the Gold winner of the Disease Education category, Get Real About Diabetes.
Judges appreciated how different in tone and substance this campaign was from other programs in the overly crowded diabetes category. They also applauded the team’s choice of influencer — type 2 diabetes patient Anthony Anderson, who stars in the hit TV comedy Black-ish.
In what one judge called a “genius integration,” this team got a type 2 diabetes diagnosis written into the storyline of Anderson’s Black-ish character on the fall finale episode, aptly titled “Sugar Daddy.” The team worked closely with Black-ish writers to ensure medical accuracy and to include injectable therapy. A supporting campaign executed on earned, paid, owned, and shared channels launched on World Diabetes Day.
The 2018 chair of judges, Lisa Flaiz, praised the campaign’s ability to “live” in multiple categories, including multichannel, PR, and unbranded. She also admired the team’s storytelling finesse and Anderson’s ability to connect emotionally.
“I would consider this breakthrough creative,” Flaiz added. “The diabetes market is very noisy, and the category is very crowded — this campaign has stopping power and the power to persuade.”
Additional judges noted the “we’re in this together” approach resonated especially well and helped “erase the stigma and blame of not dealing with type 2 diabetes.”
The campaign drew 60,000 people to join its Facebook page. Total Facebook reach hit 16.7 million, including 8.1 million video views.
Flaiz noted the large number of people joining the Facebook community could be seen as a proxy for taking the disease more seriously and engaging in the discussion and call to action around it.
Honorable mentions for Best in Show include McCann Echo’s #SaveNJlives pro-bono effort for New Jersey Sharing Network, and CDM New York’s Multichannel Unlock campaign for Biogen’s Spinraza.
From the October 11, 2018 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
