Irony in the Wild is an activation of The Un-ironic Iron campaign for ACCRUFeR—a campaign that shows consumers the world is filled with enough irony as it is. We don't need it in our iron.

This was a single-day activation that took place in New York City. On March 20th, pedestrians stumbled upon colorful arrows pointing out random ironies (that they would normally ignore). Like a trashcan, that's in the trash. The success of the activation relied entirely on people stopping and engaging with each placement, which drove them to learn more about The Un-ironic Iron.

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 re-launch ACCRUFeR and get people to 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.

For The Un-ironic Iron campaign to work, it had to be grounded in found, everyday irony. That's where Irony in the Wild comes in. An activation that points out real irony, in the real world.

We printed bold, colorful arrows that said things like, "WELL, THIS IS IRONIC" and "IRONIC, HUH?" and scouted the streets of New York City, 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.

The Un-ironic Iron campaign targets adults with iron deficiency or iron deficiency anemia. That's ~15 million people in the US alone.

For Irony in the Wild to be effective, we had to be strategic about our location. We needed huge numbers of pedestrians and plenty of irony to discover. New York City was the clear answer.

And if we could get people to stop and notice us while hustling down the streets of New York, we knew we'd successfully delivered our message.

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.

The entire activation took place in 1 day. We took our arrows, scouted the streets of New York City, placed them, and filmed. We covered 6 placements in total, spanning across multiple neighborhoods, including the populous Financial District. Based on NYC pedestrian data, up to 61,000 people walk through that area each day.

A simple QR code completed the experience, driving consumers 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%.

This experience 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 reshape patients’ understanding of how a treatment can and should make them feel.

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This experience 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 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.