Based on low awareness of the wet Age-related Macular Degeneration (wAMD) disease, a PR campaign was executed in order to increase awareness and sales of Lucentis drug that treated the disease.

The campaign could not include the brand name or the visual of the medicine, therefore a series of various communication forms was set up providing information about the potential threats and challenging the target audience to undergo specific eye checks and tests and simultaneously informing about a unique drug that can treat the disease.

The campaign addressed the target audience at their most frequented places – grocery stores. Positive results of the campaign are proved by increased sales of Lucentis.

Campaign duration: September 29th to November 30th 2008 in two phases:Phase 1: informational and educational roadshow. Special promotion tables with ophthalmologists informing the potential patients and providing basic eye testing in front of the largest grocery stores.Phase 2: press conference at the World Vision Day (9th October 2009) about the disease, the threats it imposes and its treatment.Forms of Communication:Visual demonstrations of wAMD patient’s eyesight – pictures covered by the blot, which causes low quality vision/eyesight including the basic self-vision-testing by Amsler Grid on A1 and A4 posters, special glasses, brochures and advertising roll banners. The main headline of the campaign was: Are you waiting until wAMD arrives?The main logo and claim was: Focus on Vision.

• €114,960 in media added value from the press conference - almost 500% (€ 23,160) of the campaign expenditures. The press conference expenditures amounted only to € 2,160.

• 75% increase in Lucentis sales during the campaign and afterwards, too.

• Even despite the well-known definition of PR goals (PR does not have any direct impact on sales, PR is a tool supporting the positive image of the company/service/brand) the attached chart proves the direct impact of the campaign on the increased sales of Lucentis: • Moderate increase in sales of competing products during the campaign and afterwards, caused by fact, the prescription-only character of Lucentis did not allow direct promotion of the drug name or visual.For more details, see chart attached to Focus on Vision presentation board.