For Daman, the leading health insurance brand in the UAE, we wanted people in the country to use antibiotics responsibly

We started with its 3 million members - the largest member base for an insurance brand in the country.

And we likened popping antibiotics to popping candies to highlight that people shouldn’t “treat” themselves to antibiotics

Our idea: Don’t ‘treat’ yourself to antibiotics

We created parodies of the packaging of the world’s famous confectionary brands by subverting their packaging and designing candy-like antibiotic packs.

M&Ms became Pencillin.

Skittles became Ceftriaxone.

TicTac became Oxacillin.

Smarties became Moxifloxacin.

And we then communicated the message through those parodied packs via a nation-wide content campaign across direct marketing, activation and digital channels.

We opened people’s eyes to the dangers of antibiotic self-prescription through a nationwide content campaign.

At contextual locations across the country through posters placed in pharmacies, medical centers, Daman health centers and through content shared with its 3 million members base via educational posters on the intranet and through eDMs.

In shopping malls across the UAE, you’d typically see many candy stands that distribute confectionary products.

So we developed stands carrying our candy-like antibiotics packs; these stands were parodied based on the well-known confectionary stands one sees across UAE malls, and placed them in high traffic locations in 6 popular shopping malls across the country.

People were drawn to these stands – only to be surprised, amused, startled and shocked – but they understood the adverse effects of popping pills like candy! 8400 packs were distributed.

“We had the risk of offending the medical and we were at risk of a reputational crisis. But we were brave. And the impact was large.” (Andrew Phillips, CMO, Daman)

Across 3 million members:

(1) Number of claims per member decreased for the first time in one year - decreasing by 18% - depicting better health awareness, lower visits to doctors, lower prescriptions, better health and reduced costs.

(2) Medical cost per person reduced -17% month on month since the campaign; from AED 350 TO AED 290. In the context of over 2 million claims per month, this is a significant decrease.

(3) Cost per claim has reduced -0.5% in 2015 vs. increasing to +3.1% in 2014. Again, in the context of over 2 million claims per month, this is a significant decrease.

Importantly, this resulted in the cost of claims to the economy reducing -32.8 million USD per month.