NP-US-00005

People don't really care about oral iron. It's a treatment that has existed for centuries, lacks innovation, and is generally thought to be all the "same." It's also supposed to make people with iron deficiency feel better, but it actually makes them feel worse. So much worse that up to 3 in 5 people stop taking it altogether.

When ACCRUFeR had a 21st-century solution, an effective and tolerable option, nobody was listening. Post-launch, even the medical community had virtually no awareness of the brand (<5%). We needed to get people to stop compromising and demand better—a treatment that actually does what it's supposed to do.

So, we labeled ACCRUFeR The Un-ironic Iron. Because, in a world full of irony, people don't need it in their iron.

Our objectives were to simply increase awareness and drive to our branded website.

Irony in the Wild was the first activation for The Un-ironic Iron campaign, which launched in late March 2023. With next to no awareness, our objective was to simply tell people about ACCRUFeR. We did that, and more. People didn't just notice the arrow placements. They stopped, laughed, and took pictures. Many of them even took the time to scan our QR code.

In a single day, we not only drove awareness about The Un-ironic Iron. We increased traffic to our website by over 340%.

We didn't have a large budget for The Un-ironic Iron campaign, so we leaned into the "scrappy" nature of the idea—found irony, captured in the moment. Irony in the Wild was exactly that. An ambient activation that points out life's irony.

We needed to get in front of huge numbers of people. We also needed a lot of funny, random irony. So, we showed up in New York City. We printed bold, colorful arrows that said things like, "WELL, THIS IS IRONIC" and "IRONIC, HUH?" and scouted the streets, using the arrows to point out all the irony we could find. Like a no littering sign that was tossed on the ground. Or a "green" park effort that has no greenery in sight.

Then, we waited. Discretely filming the reactions of New Yorkers as they walked by.

The CTA? Discover The Un-ironic Iron.

This ambient activation was created for a highly regulated pharmaceutical category. The goal was to get patients to think differently about their iron deficiency (ID) treatment and drive awareness of ACCRUFeR, the only FDA-approved oral iron in the US.

There are ~15 million people living with ID and ID anemia in the US, yet the category lacks in advancement and attention. The Un-ironic Iron campaign empowers patients to demand better. It’s the first campaign to acknowledge the shortcomings of most iron treatments and to reshape patients’ understanding of how a treatment can and should make them feel.

This campaign was created by a US pharmaceutical company for a prescription medication. It was subject to review by internal medical, legal, and regulatory teams, as well as the FDA.

Irony in the Wild is an ambient activation of The Un-ironic Iron campaign, which targets millions of adult patients living with iron deficiency or iron deficiency anemia. Many of these patients have tried and abandoned iron treatment due to terrible side effects. This work empowered them to demand better.