Sonic branding isn’t done well in health, but it’s proven to make ads 8 times more effective.

Lapiplasty is the modern way to do bunion surgery, but it’s not easy to say or remember.

And with people needing to ask for it by name, that’s a big problem.

That’s why we created memorable ASMR sonic brand that embodies the magic people feel when their painful bunion has finally gone, evoking comforting, relaxing, and positive brand associations in an audience who find surgery scary.

Our sonic brand turned a scary surgery that was hard to say into something easy to recall.

The work required mandatory fair balance. All fair balance had to be written in footnotes and the main risk had to be said verbally at the end of the ad. It impacted how long we could show the positives and how prominent and long the fair balance needed to be on screen.

With us showing a ‘future patient’ we had to have all bunion related prosthetics and scarring signed off by a consultant surgeon.

Work had to be uploaded into an approval system and signed off by a consultant bunion surgeon, medical, legal and brand.

Bunions primarily impact women over 40 years of age.

Research showed that two main areas impacted the uptake of bunion surgery. Their fear of surgery and the length of recovery.

Their fear of surgery meant that the work has to counteract that in approachability and tone. Ensuring everything was done to maximize comfort and ease with our communications.

Length of recovery post-surgery deters them from prioritising their health as a number of people groups (parents, friends, children, work) depend on their care and time.

The audio needed to communicate a magical feeling for the brand. This aligns with the magical feeling our brand offers patients’ feet. It needed to be simple (like our surgery) and it needed to be memorable (as people have to ask for us by name).

This music and the stylised voiceover style helped us achieved this.

The music was a combination of a magical puff sound with a chimes glissando. This granted us narrative permission for a person to magically appear, while evoking feelings of simplicity and wonder.

The voiceover style was ASMR. This created something unexpected and distinctive, but it’s also proven to significantly enhance message recall; evoking feelings of comfort and relaxation. These positive brand associations are important when you’re trying to make an audience traditionally scared of surgery, feel at ease with your brand.

Because something magic for your ears, can also be magic for your feet.

SITUATION

Women over 40 are suffering with painful bunions. But due to their fear of surgery and the length of recovery, they prioritise their role in the family (parents, friends, children, work) over their own health.

BRIEF/OBJECTIVES

- Create a piece of communication that made Lapiplasty feel approachable and simple to do. Make people feel that bunion surgery is something they can fit into their lives.

- Take an unknown surgery that’s difficult to remember and turn into a household name people easily recall.

- Reengage patients who are scared of bunion surgery because of long and arduous recovery times and make them feel Lapiplasty is easy, magical and transformational.

The initial media placement went out to over 6 million viewers of the finale for The Bachelor, a 'campfire' moment for our audience.

We achieved 5,000 new website visits within 5 minutes of the ad airing. That first month of the campaign going live saw a 475% increase in overall site traffic. With this, there was a 623% increase in new surgery inquiries online through our assessment tool on the website.

Work required mandatory fair balance. Fair balance had to be written in footnotes and the main risks had to be said verbally at the end. It impacted how long we could show the positives visually and how prominent and long the fair balance needed to be on screen.

Our target audience was women over 40 as they typically are the most likely to have bunions. They are a demographic with many people and places depending on them (their parents, friends, children or work), so traditionally they would be put off by surgery fears and length of recovery.

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