The idea was to create a safety net of aspirin carriers by arming people with the last name Smith —the most common last name in America—with aspirin.

We set out to build a safety net of aspirin-carrying Smiths, to make sure there’s always aspirin around. But first, we had to arm them. We created HeroSmith Kits, which provided the tools and information needed to carry aspirin and help save a life. At TheHeroSmiths.com, Smiths could pledge to carry aspirin, order their own HeroSmiths kit, see how many people they could protect daily, and recruit their Smith friends. Next, we went to a town with one of the highest heart attack rates in the country to arm every Smith with aspirin, and see our theory in action. They became the voice of the brand in an online documentary series. And then we went to public events – where people are actually more likely to have heart attacks – to recognize and arm Smiths. From there, people took it upon themselves to recruit more Smiths, growing our network of aspirin-carrying HeroSmiths.

Smiths in America have embraced the campaign. And by reaching out to the 2.4 million Smiths, we reached 63.5 million individual people in the first couple of weeks. Not only have we created a reason for an entirely new market to purchase aspirin, but after being exposed to the campaign, people are 233% more likely to agree that Bayer Aspirin is a brand they love. Behavior-wise, the intent to carry aspirin has increased 67.4% nationwide, with over 88,000 pledges to carry aspirin in the first couple of weeks.

Rarely before has a big healthcare brand talked to anyone except their immediate, at-risk, target audience. But we knew we could create a safety net of aspirin carriers by talking to people with the last name Smith, because there’s 1 Smith for every 130 Americans. The bulk of our campaign was launched during the month of February, which is Heart Month. We wanted the organic recruitment of Smiths to activate during a time when the messaging was going to resonate with people.

There is a heart attack every 42 seconds, and they’re very unpredictable. You never think you’re going to have a heart attack, or that someone is going to have a heart attack near you. Bayer sought to change people’s behavior from keeping aspirin in their medicine cabinet as part of an aspirin regimen, to keeping it in their pocket, and always carrying it on them, to create a safety net of aspirin carriers.