The GetAroundKnee campaign was designed to get “fence sitters” to talk to their doctors about knee replacement surgery and the GetAroundKnee—the only system designed to replace naturally circular knee motion. Fence sitters are described as people aged 45 to 75 who are thinking about but afraid of surgery, and doing anything they can to avoid it, including living in pain or leading a sedentary existence. Typically, medical device advertising targets surgeons who are already quite familiar with human anatomy and medical terms. To reach patients, we needed to simplify a complicated message about our product and its “single-radius” design. We also needed to let prospective patients know that there are different kinds of knee replacement systems, and that the choice they make ultimately determines the kind of mobility they enjoy post-surgery.

The “Get Around Knee” campaign was built to make the knee design seem intuitive. We wanted people to realize that they weren’t replacing their knee, but the way their knee moves. And we wanted them to believe that the best knee movement is the movement closest to their natural knee.

So we created a world in which there were no circles.

With a non-media production budget of approximately $1.5 million, we created a television and print campaign that communicated our point of difference in a very simple way. While most multi-radius knee systems create an oval motion, the GetAroundKnee replaces the knee’s naturally circular motion. We created a world where circles don’t exist to make the point that nothing moves as smoothly, naturally, or easily as a circle.

The results have been tremendous so far. Given the number of visitors to a companion website and surgeon finder, fence sitters were obviously able to imagine what the promise of restored circular knee motion could mean for them and how they “get around.” The campaign had an almost immediate effect on sales growth. As of July 2012, sales were up nearly 8%.