In order to raise awareness in Almirall’s staff about their new dermatological work, for one day we helped them empathise with people who suffer from skin disease, feeling what they feel everyday.

To do this we literally turned the employees into sufferers of skin disease.

With the help of a makeup studio and cinema special effects, and hiding the results from the individuals concerned, we transformed five of Almirall’s employees (among them the CEO) so they appeared to have five different severe skin diseases. And then we took them out onto the street to capture the reactions of the people they passed.

This experience enabled them to feel, first hand, what it means to suffer a skin disease, and to experience the social stigma attached to it – because understanding sufferers is the first step towards helping them.

First we worked with specialists to recreate the illnesses that the company’s five employees would suffer.

To ensure that the makeup was realistic we collaborated with the prestigious studio DDT FX, Oscar winners for Best Makeup for “Pan’s Labyrinth”.

We worked on the employees separately so their expressions wouldn’t reveal the results to each other. Once their makeup was finished, we took them to the city centre so they could experience what a sufferer feels when they do something as simple as walking down the street or buying bread.

On a set, they discovered what skin disease they were suffering from. We recorded their reactions and reflections so they could tell the rest of the workforce what it means to suffer from a skin disease, helping them to see the importance of their daily work – because the first step in helping people is understanding them.

This action led to the company’s staff understanding the importance of their daily tasks. They understood what it means to suffer a skin disease, and it helped them to become even more engaged in their jobs. We changed their perception that their work was not important for people suffering from disease.

The company has seen an increase in the degree of engagement and commitment to developing new drugs to help these sufferers, because the entire company has walked in their shoes.

The action was a huge success with a positive impact on more than 95% of the company’s staff all over the world. All of them became aware of the daily problems faced by sufferers of skin diseases and they helped us to spread the company’s message throughout the pharmaceutical sector, leading to sufferers of skin disease and society in general perceiving Almirall as a company that cares about them.

This internal communication action managed to get all Almirall’s workers, spread over 15 countries, to understand the company’s change in direction towards dermatology.

Our goal was to engage employees so that they would explain to the rest of their colleagues the importance of their work.

This was an innovative action that was very different from what the pharmaceutical sector is used to experiencing. Furthermore, we managed to get our message across beyond the pharmaceutical sector itself, reaching sufferers of skin disease and society in general.

When you suffer from a skin disease, you don’t only suffer from the illness and pain that this supposes. Patients have to face the looks of other people everyday, making them feel set apart and stigmatized. Many sufferers told us that they feel obliged to hide themselves away and cannot live a normal life, because they feel they are the centre of everyone’s gaze, wherever they go. This causes them as much psychological pain as physical pain, if not more, which is why so often sufferers also need psychological treatment.

We therefore chose five key employees – an outstanding employee from each department. We decided to use five because Almirall develops drugs to combat 5 main skin diseases: Severe Acne, Psoriasis, Rosacea, Actinic Keratosis and Atopic Dermatitis.

Then we arranged for each of these employees to put themselves in the shoes of a real sufferer, recording their experience and reactions.

At the beginning of 2016, Almirall, a pharmaceutical company with offices in 15 countries, implemented a strategic change, moving in the direction of dermatology. Until then it had focused exclusively on developing drugs for the respiratory and digestive systems.

The problem: with this new pharmaceutical direction towards dermatology, employees felt that their work was no longer as important for society.

For this reason Almirall needed an internal communication action that would show everyone the importance of their work, and that would generate awareness in sufferers of skin disease and society in general.

Make all Almirall’s employees feel that their work is essential for all those patients who suffer from skin diseases. Show all those who are suffering from a skin disease that a large pharmaceutical company understands them and cares about them.