The Philippines’ analgesics market is dominated by Biogesic and Medicol, two brands manufactured by the largest pharmaceutical company in the country. Enter Bayer’s Saridon, a small, relatively unknown brand with a tiny 3% market share, who would soon become their biggest threat.

With the objective of increasing sales in the Visayas and Mindanao regions of the Philippines, Saridon made waves through a simple but highly relevant campaign that appealed specifically to the regional market’s sensibilities, playing on a poignant understanding of the working-class’ experience of headache pain. While competition stuck to campaigns that relied on celebrity endorserments and hard science, Saridon conveyed the benefits of headache relief in terms of regular people, utilizing outdoor materials to visually dramatize the idea of a persistent headache and applying this to familiar work situations. With only 0.3% of competition’s advertising budget, the brand grew by 77%, exceeding its sales targets for the launch period and outpacing the growth of the category.