This campaign is aimed at current Psoriasis patients and their loved ones to raise awareness and empower their community.

The Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) is the governing body of pharmaceutical advertising in the USA who oversees the approval of any promotional material. For unbranded materials such as More to Psoriasis, which are more educational in nature, OPDP preclearance is not required.

For millions of people with plaque psoriasis, their daily lives are filled with realities most of us could never imagine. The effects of their condition go far beyond the skin.

This truth was overwhelmingly evident as we did our homework; scouring social feeds, monitoring patient-based forums and speaking openly with people who were suffering, often in isolation.

But there was a disconnect happening in the marketplace: No one was honestly talking about the impact of psoriasis on a deep, human level. Or reflecting the real-life struggles people were dealing with every day. Most efforts simply stopped at clear skin and a promise of brighter days and sleeveless dresses.

So we set out to expose the truth. And let people who are suffering know that someone does understand their plight. We wanted them to finally feel that they were not alone.

Our approach was to create an intimate portrait of someone’s life, and document their real struggles and successes from the inside out.

By showing the real-world, real-time impact psoriasis has on people who suffer, while also promoting a deeper understanding and empathy for people who don’t, That’s Pso My Reality has spread more than just truth. It’s spread healing.

Five months after launch, the campaign generated 13MM impressions and 78K website visits. 13% of visitors registered with our community, 3.5x better than Novartis’ benchmark. The PsO community has 4.3K registrations total, where 3.7K have voted on content and 360 have submitted stories on our homepage. Average time on site is 2 minutes 50 seconds, above the 2 minute benchmark at Novartis. The documentary videos outlining Huy’s daily struggle have been viewed more than 1.5K times.

The campaign had three key goals – create a powerful voice for PsO patients, build a database, and position Novartis as a partner that truly understands PsO patients and their condition. In addition to achieving the above metrics, More to Psoriasis got the attention of key influencers in the community who shared our campaign reaching 92K followers on Facebook and Twitter, one of them being the largest patient advocacy group, the National Psoriasis Foundation.

Psoriasis can be an overlooked condition. Those who suffer, do so silently. Publicly, it’s misunderstood. “It’s contagious and dirty,” they say. While conversations about the harsh realities were disparately happening in personal social feeds and small forums, there was no one platform amplifying the message and galvanizing the community. So Novartis created an innovative user-generated effort where people could listen, watch—and also be heard. Where they could heal through the catharsis of soul-bearing honesty. Help the public truly understand their plight. And ultimately build courage through connections, to demand more from treatments.