The brief was to make Novartis the authority on heart failure among 4 targets: journalists, patients, patients' relatives, general public.

Heart failure is impacting more than one million French people: their heart can't pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. As the provider of one of the most effective heart failure treatment, Novartis has a leading role to play in its management and awareness.

We learned that half of the hospitalizations could be avoided if the patient had been diagnosed earlier. But in France, only one in ten people knows the first signs of the disease.

From that our objective was simple: to raise awareness of the symptoms of heart failure by spreading the message about what it’s like to live with it, and ultimately help save lives by increasing early detections.

We created an apartment where everyone can feel the symptoms of heart failure. Partnering with the 4 biggest heart failure patients associations in France we gathered hundreds of testimonials from real patients explaining in their own words how their symptoms affect their daily life, as well as the first warning signs they noticed that led them to visit their doctor. Based on these testimonials we transformed every detail of the apartment to make journalists, friends and family of patients, and the general public feel what it’s like to live with heart failure, and to get them talking about the symptoms.

The apartment was created in Paris. To extend the reach of the idea we also created an immersive website experience that allowed people to virtually visit it. Additionally, we created video assets that were shared online.

The main strategic challenge was the diversity of the target audiences that we needed to reach: patients, general public, patients' relatives, and journalists, as well as the complexity of explaining abstract symptoms to them that are difficult to imagine unless experienced. So we involved patients themselves, consulting with them directly via a partnership with the 4 main patient associations in France to learn what it’s like to live with heart failure, enabling us to create a campaign that truly reflects the lived experience of patients, and therefore helping to better raise awareness among the 3 other target groups, in one place, at the same time: an apartment. The apartment was created to directly reflect patients’ experience of their symptoms so journalists and everyone else can see and share what it’s like to live with heart failure; because ultimately the best way to understand something is to experience it directly.

We rented an apartment in the heart of Paris, and completely modified the interior to create an experience that showed healthy people what it’s like to live with heart failure. We made the floors spongey so people could feel what it’s like to have heavy legs, we made objects in the apartment heavier, and the sofa more difficult to stand up from, so people could experience the extreme tiredness associated with heart failure. Every single detail of the apartment was considered to create a truly immersive experience for those who entered. Once people were inside, they were also given an audio guide with a selection of patients' testimonials so they could understand why different aspects of the apartment had been modified in the way they had.

At the end of the experience, people and journalists were invited to meet heart failure patients and professionals to discuss the experience.

- Over 135 millions organic impressions highlighting the main symptoms of heart failure to a mainstream French audience, educating them about the early signs of the disease and promoting association of Novartis as the experts in heart failure (Kantar).

- 100 pieces of coverage including national TV, newspaper and radio

- One article in the most read daily newspaper in France

- A 5 minute documentary on national TV following someone in the apartment

- Over 90% of coverage mentioned Novartis

+ 110% increase in Google searches for “heart failure symptoms” (Google Trends)

17,440 average number of monthly searches for “heart failure” in France before activation

30,100 average number of monthly searches for “heart failure” during the campaign (source: Google Keyword Planner)