Healthcare professionals – primary care physicians and rheumatologists. The campaign provided an impactful hook into a deeper medical story that was appropriately pitched for this audience’s level of education and understanding.

None.

Subverting the chemical process causing gout to instead crystallise a three-dimensional patient scaffold, turning this misunderstood condition against itself by externalising its hidden nature and creating a dramatic visual representation that’s impossible to ignore.

A real, physical, life-size crystallised model of a gout patient was created with 4,000 kg of magnesium sulphate, 25 meters of aluminium tubing, a 4kW industrial chiller unit, and a professor of biochemistry. Exhibited in a London gallery space, the model served as a platform for the gout patient in whose likeness it was created to come face to face with his condition and have a medical expert explain the significance of what he was looking at. He then used this as a way in to explain to family and friends the impact gout has on his life.

The EULAR Congress, 14-16th June 2017, marked the European launch of the CHANGE GOUT campaign. This integrated launch, to 14,308 participants from 130 countries in Madrid, included an interactive branded booth exhibit showcasing a touch-screen version of the website, campaign film, iPad detail aid and leavepiece. The centrepiece to this exhibit, the real-life crystallized model of our patient's head (due to the delicate nature of the crystal formations, transporting the entire sculpture was not possible). Allowing delegates to experience first-hand the results of the science experience behind this campaign and see the dramatic, hidden consequences, of uncontrolled gout. Since its initial launch, a planned launch roll-out across Europe has been initiated utilising an extensive, integrated launch toolkit of materials, inline with individual markets launch strategies. Upon its completion, the CHANGE GOUT campaign will have launched in 15 countries.

In the first 8 months, the website attracted 250,000 unique views and 14,000 unique views of the documentary, and average visit times were close to three minutes.

In addition to the targeted audience, the innovative way the website experience brought the content to life was picked up by the design community and shared extensively through design blogs and organically through social media on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, VKontakte (Russia), and Naver (Korea). Helping take a low priority and often misunderstood condition into public debate.

This was a physical event that took place in London, UK, involving a real, crystallised, life-size model of a gout patient that was used as a platform for reintroducing the world to a condition people think they know about.

The target audience is primary care physicians and rheumatologists across Europe. An audience who, despite being responsible for treating gout, find it of little interest or excitement. The campaign therefore had to make this apathetic audience sit up and take notice if we were going to stand any chance of achieving our campaign vision. To ensure market readiness for the launch of the first innovation in the treatment of Gout in over 20 years. Driving a paradigm shift in the treatment of gout by changing how the world sees a condition, that since medieval times, has been portrayed as a lifestyle disease with entrenched apathetic attitudes and often ineffectual treatment regimes.

The approach was to launch the campaign 6 months prior to the new product launch in each of 15 key European markets. With launch readiness KPIs that needed to be achieved in each market prior to product launch.

Gout is seen by healthcare professionals as a lifestyle disease that causes bouts of pain in fingers and toes. In fact it is a disease of crystal deposition, causing serious long-term consequences for the whole body. But these crystals are hard to see, and when something is hard to see, it’s easy to ignore.

The brief was to prepare the market for the launch of a new drug to treat gout by waking people up to the serious nature of the condition and the importance of appropriate long-term treatment to prevent its debilitating physical impact.

The objective of The Change Gout Campaign was to challenge existing misconceptions and ineffectual prescribing habits of healthcare professionals by shocking them into action with a visual demonstration of the hidden side of a condition they can’t normally see.