Although Voltaren Arthritis Pain Gel is the #1 global topical pain reliever, it was only available in the U.S. as a prescription until May 2020, when it became available OTC on shelves. As the first full-prescription strength, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory gel for powerful arthritis pain relief, the OTC approval of Voltaren provided arthritis sufferers greater access to a well-tolerated treatment and an alternative way for them to treat their arthritis pain. The challenge? Voltaren had limited awareness in the U.S. and was entering into a highly competitive category with established brands such as Tylenol, Aleve, Icy Hot, and BioFreeze. To stand out amongst the competition, Voltaren needed a holistic and differentiated digital strategy that uniquely understood its consumers. Enter VoltarenGel.com, the first and only arthritis-friendly website.

If you’re one of the 50 million adults in the U.S. with arthritis, you’ve likely spent a lot of time searching for a treatment that actually works. Enter Voltaren—the first full-prescription strength gel for powerful arthritis pain relief. Although it’s the world’s #1 topical pain reliever, Voltaren was only available in the U.S. as a prescription until it became available OTC in May 2020. As such, Voltaren had limited awareness and was entering a highly competitive category with established brands such as Tylenol, Aleve, Icy Hot, and BioFreeze. To stand out, Voltaren needed a differentiated digital strategy that uniquely understood its consumers: people who had trouble navigating the web due to pain in their hands. So how do you get those people to learn more about your new arthritis relief product online? By building a site specifically designed for them. Introducing VoltarenGel.com: the first and only arthritis-friendly website.

Research showed that a large portion of our potential consumers—the 50 million arthritis sufferers in the U.S.—had arthritis in their hands, making it difficult and painful for them to navigate the web. Thus, keeping our consumer at the core, we set out to build a world-class website that would be easy for arthritis sufferers to use. Prototype testing proved the following accessibility features to be essential: voice search, a voice-enabled chatbot, large tap targets, scalable font sizes, and the ability to view hands-free content via videos and head-gesture capabilities. Research also showed our audience desired content that supported overall health and wellness, in addition to their condition. That led us to develop search-optimized educational content—supporting overall health for arthritis patients—that went far beyond the typical product information. This content laddered up to consumer research to help users manage their arthritis during key life moments.

VoltarenGel.com was built to provide a total support system for arthritis patients, including both emotional and functional support. Knowing a majority of our consumers have difficulty navigating websites, we implemented accessibility features such as voice search, a voice-enabled chatbot, large tap targets, scalable font sizes, and the ability to view hands-free content via videos and head-gesture capabilities.

We also developed search-optimized educational content supporting overall health for arthritis patients that went far beyond the typical product information. This content ladders up to consumer research and helps users manage their arthritis during key life moments.

Through multiple touchpoints on our site, we securely captured first-party data from users to help us understand our consumers and communicate to them in a more personalized way, e.g., to drive an eCRM program that offers ongoing support and maintains consideration for Voltaren between purchase cycles.

To complement the features above, the site offers comprehensive product education including clear product benefits, testimonials/reviews to prove efficacy, and proper usage. If a user is ready to try or buy, samples and coupons are available, as well as universal checkout capabilities enabling a direct-to-consumer experience.

Before launching all features, we partnered with the Arthritis Foundation and real arthritis patients to do prototype testing—a true test to ensure that what we designed met arthritis sufferers’ needs.

VoltarenGel.com launched as the first arthritis-friendly, mobile-first website experience—tested and validated by real arthritis patients, built with unique arthritis-friendly features, and offering holistic support. Defying category norms, the site offered the market a whole new way to approach arthritis pain relief—just like the product itself. The Arthritis Foundation even recognized VoltarenGel.com as the first arthritis-friendly website and provided accreditation on the site.

In prototype testing with arthritis patients, 99% of users found the site easy to use and feedback was overwhelmingly positive—especially for our accessibility modifications. In practice, the same held true. During the first month of Full-Launch, over 1/3 of on-site search queries were via voice input vs. typing. We also had 35,000+ users opt-in to our eCRM program and have had a sign-up rate 4x our target ever since.

Pre-order week 1 was noted by Shoppable (our 3rd party partner) as the highest one-week total sales of any brand they have integrated with. Pre-order drove strong conversion into the brand: Voltaren achieved #1 in the External Analgesics Category within 3 weeks of launch, #4 in the Total Pain Category within 4 weeks, and is currently the #1 doctor-recommended topical pain relief brand.

The Arthritis Foundation also recognized us as the first arthritis-friendly website and provided accreditation on the site.