Gout is seen by healthcare professionals as a lifestyle disease that causes bouts of pain in fingers and toes. In fact it is a disease of crystal deposition, causing serious long-term consequences for the whole body. But these crystals are hard to see, and when something is hard to see, it’s easy to ignore.

The Change Gout campaign would challenge existing misconceptions and ineffectual prescribing by using the chemical process underpinning gout to crystallise a three-dimensional patient scaffold, externalising the hidden nature of this misunderstood condition and creating a dramatic visual representation that’s impossible to ignore.

This was taken into the digital space with an immersive experience that brought the story to life through a dynamically generated WebGL visualisation of the crystalline body. Hotspots embedded throughout the site revealed bite-sized information, which then dropped into a deeper medical story.

The EULAR Congress, 14-16th June 2017, marked the European launch of the CHANGE GOUT campaign. This integrated launch, to 14,308 participants from 130 countries in Madrid, included an interactive branded booth exhibit showcasing a touch-screen version of the website, campaign film, iPad detail aid and leavepiece. The centrepiece to this exhibit, the real-life crystallized model of our patient's head (due to the delicate nature of the crystal formations, transporting the entire sculpture was not possible). Allowing delegates to experience first-hand the results of the science experience behind this campaign and see the dramatic, hidden consequences, of uncontrolled gout. Since its initial launch, a planned launch roll-out across Europe has been initiated utilising an extensive, integrated launch toolkit of materials, inline with individual markets launch strategies. Upon its completion, the CHANGE GOUT campaign will have launched in 15 countries.

In the first 8 months, the website attracted 250,000 unique views and 14,000 unique views of the documentary, and average visit times were close to three minutes.

In addition to the targeted audience, the innovative way the website experience brought the content to life was picked up by the design community and shared extensively through design blogs and organically through social media on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, VKontakte (Russia), and Naver (Korea). Helping take a low priority and often misunderstood condition into public debate.