Swedes are using the highest amount of painkillers in the entire world, which is not a healthy situation. Pain relief is one of Apotek Hjärtat’s most important categories and they are constantly striving to offer their customers new ways to treat their pain, that is less harmful to the body. Apotek Hjärtat wanted to create a brand building and engaging communications activity that positioned them as experts and innovator on pain relief, to help swedes reduce their intake of pain killers.

Objectives:

A media reach of at least 10 million people

To create an innovative substitute for pain killers

Generate an interesting subject for people to talk about

Execute the idea in Apotek Hjärtats stores around in Sweden

The VR app Happy Place was released on Oculus Store, free of charge, and activated on a broad level. A broad media pitch was conducted to reach the target audience and to raise awareness around the question, and to get people to try the experience themselves, instead of taking pain killers. Simultaneously, a case video explaining the idea was released on YouTube and communicated in social media towards the target audience, to raise awareness. The VR app was implemented in selected pharmacy stores, for people to try themselves, even if they didn’t own a VR headset, which drove a lot of people to the stores. We also created tailored media pitches targeted niche medias, which created a buzz in medical- and pharmaceutical medias. This generated massive attention in medical field and Happy Place was recommended from a lot of people.