Over 4.5 million Australians suffer from hay fever allergies, brought on by common allergens such as pollen, dust and mould.

The challenge is many light-medium sufferers don’t realise they have hayfever allergies, instead attributing the symptoms to tiredness or the cold and flu.

To relaunch Zyrtec ahead of hay fever season, our client briefed us to target “unknowing” hay fever sufferers, educating them on the physical signs of hay fever allergies and how to treat with Zyrtec.

The insight

Hay fever can slow you down, get in the way of social occasions, and ruin your spring and summer. ‘Allergy Face’ ruins wedding photos and can limit self-confidence.

We overlayed this insight with media data showing our target audience over indexed when it came to fashion, cosmetics and social events. Essentially, our audience loved to look and feel good.

The idea

Launched as the ultimate allergy torture test, we designed a dress that included 1,200 living flowers – and was positioned as a hayfever allergy sufferer’s worst nightmare. The dress was worn by an allergy sufferer who used Zyrtec to overcome the challenge.

To bring the story to life we created the ultimate Allergy Face torture test – a living floral dress made of over 1,200 real high-pollen-count flowers was given to a top model to wear to the races. The catch – she was a hay fever sufferer.

She debuted the dress at the height of spring – hay fever season – getting through the day by taking Zyrtec, proving the efficacy of the product and giving us an influencer to pitch to media.

Masterminded by florist and designer Jasmine Christie, Zyrtec’s living floral dress mixed fashion with pollen, creating a show-stopping statement that sufferers can live Allergy Face free with Zyrtec.

The term Allergy Face provided a platform to engage our audience, media and influencers, allowing for multiple creative and tactical executions to demonstrate that sufferers can live Allergy Face free with Zyrtec.

For launch we took our Pollen Couture to the masses, sponsoring the first event in Sydney’s Spring Racing Carnival – Run to the Rose Day.

Former Miss World Australia and allergy sufferer, Madeline Cowe, debuted the dress there – shedding light on her Allergy Face symptoms and how she lives allergy-free with Zyrtec.

Influencers shared their own Allergy Face content at different race events by wearing flower crowns with their Zyrtec to further amplify the message.

The launch was supported by national and state-based media pitching with interviews on national TV, radio, print and online channels. Research and healthcare professional commentary allowed us to also target consumer health media.

We collaborated with Chemist Warehouse’s House of Wellness program to feature the Allergy Face dress in pharmacies nationally.

The campaign editorial video and photo content was re-edited and used across Zyrtec’s website, digital and social channels.