Our task was to get the attention of this cynical and resigned audience, who’d seen multiple types of psoriasis campaigns before, particularly adverts showing its physical symptoms, or offering ‘solutions.’

How? Instead of focusing on the physical aspects of psoriasis, we focused on the emotional aspects of the condition, how it affects people’s everyday lives.

We see a woman in her bedroom trying to take a summer dress from her closet, a man in a

locker room, about to take a swim, and a couple returning from a date, with the girl about to invite her partner inside.

But every time their path is stopped by an invisible, impenetrable barrier, which is both familiar and upsetting for them. No psoriasis plaques are ever shown (the swimmer has a towel covering parts of his body) as the film talks only to the emotional impact of the disease, not the physical symptoms.

We created a 2min film housed on social channels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ede5hCtPGg plus a series of 20s & 10s versions shown on Infoscreen digital outdoor sites in Vienna &the Lower Austria region and via the Y-DOC advertising platform in HCP waiting rooms.

The film was and pushed to patients through Facebook targeting, served as pre-roll video through Unruly’s Instream player and both online display and programmatic advertising was used to grab attention, and encourage patients to watch the film.

The film ends encouraging patients to make an appointment with their dermatologist, or visit the dedicated campaign site: http://www.riseagainstpsoriasis.com/de where they can get info on how to find a dermatologist, and fill in a questionnaire to help guide their conversations over treatment.

The initial phase of the Austrian pilot campaign ran from October -December 2016, during which there were 13.3 million paid media impressions, and 70% visibility of the OOH digital poster sites.

The results were unprecedented. In a country with a total psoriasis population of 250,000, of which we were only actively targeting an estimated 8,000 serious long-term sufferers, the film achieved more than 200,000 video views across Youtube & Vimeo in the first 3 months of the pilot campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ede5hCtPGg

There were more than 347,000 social engagements, and 1.4 million earned impressions across social media.

There were 67,000 visits to the campaign site, with around a third of the visitors either clicking a link to seek more info regarding treatment or downloading the questionnaire.

In a survey, 70% of people said they’d share the campaign with friends, and 72% of people not seeking treatment said they planned to book an appointment with a dermatologist after seeing the campaign, The campaign was also endorsed by local leading patient groups in Austria (PSO Austria, Forum Psoriasis).