The South African pharmaceutical regulations prohibit any direct marketing/communication to consumers with regards to product in the Rx space. Any communication to consumers can only be around corporate branding. HCP’s are allowed to receive product based communication.

With 70% of African asthma and COPD sufferers undiagnosed and the WHO forecasting a 20% increase in respiratory related deaths, AstraZeneca asked us to create awareness and encourage screening to help save those lives.

There are moments in life that simply take your breath away.

And this original and unique film shows exactly that.

A once in a lifetime moment captured – a moment that reminded people of the magic and preciousness of life, and why we should always strive to make every breath count.

The film features an incredible encounter with a band of mountain gorillas. A “breathless moment” that engaged the viewers and reminded them in a lateral way of the importance of healthy respiratory function.

The campaign has successfully stimulated conversation and heightened awareness. The film was also used extensively to motivate managers and staff globally, becoming the company’s most downloaded video internally.

The objective of the digital campaign was to stimulate discussion leading to ever higher awareness of the importance of every breath. The target audience remains the general population at large but also includes influencers, government and doctors. Digital gave us the opportunity to create and widen the conversation not just through views on youtube but through sharing across facebook. We also needed the film to motivate governments and doctors and motivate senior management and staff within the company itself in order to build momentum.

There are moments in life that simply take your breath away.

And this original and unique film shows exactly that.

A once in a lifetime moment captured – a moment that reminded people of the magic and preciousness of life, and why we should always strive to make every breath count.

The film features an incredible encounter with a band of mountain gorillas. A “breathless moment” that engaged the viewers and reminded them in a lateral way of the importance of healthy respiratory function. It was intended to reflect the sheer magic and preciousness of life. We tied this thought back to our respiratory brand by setting up the story with the message “There are moments in life that simply take your breath away” and closing with “Make every breath count”. It’s a way of saying, “make sure you live life to the full” and early treatment for asthma will ensure that you can do just that.

The results are ongoing but of every thousand newly screened people, 40% currently are testing positive for asthma or COPD. Corporately inside AstraZeneca the film has had unprecedented global attention causing new discussion and revitalised awareness on respiratory issues because of its emotional and unique approach, resulting in a new brief and campaign extension not just for second phase in Africa but for the corporation globally.

The planning of the campaign was based on the understanding that, due to African regulations preventing the communication of scheduled products to the consumer, AstraZeneca was limited to stimulating screening. However, they were secure in the knowledge that the majority of doctors would turn to Symbicort as the most effective and popular treatment once diagnosis of asthma or COPD was confirmed.

The strategy extended to motivating a secondary target of influencers and senior management and staff within AstraZeneca itself.

Digital was chosen as a cost effective medium to stimulate conversation and awareness in a way that would spread the message exponentially.

Low awareness of respiratory issues in Africa has led to a situation whereby 70% of asthma and COPD sufferers are undiagnosed. Statistics for sub-Saharan Africa alone conservatively point to upwards of 70 million people currently undiagnosed. The burden of treating severe cases will be high and probably unsustainable for African governments. The opportunity was and is, to stimulate early screening so that treatment can help prevent deterioration of the condition – and save lives.