Tezspire, the remedy for extreme bronchial asthma from Amgen and AstraZeneca, is again with an up to date business for its ongoing Be You marketing campaign.
Some readers might recall that final yr, this column lined the launch of Be You, the primary direct to shopper marketing campaign for Tezspire. The effort was constructed round quite a lot of totally different bronchial asthma victims, all represented by animated characters.
The forged included Geraldine, a grandmother with a ardour for warm rods; Mel, a mom with bronchial asthma seen chopping wooden; Kai, a Samoan ice sculptor for whom chilly air is a set off; and Hawk, a punk rocker with a keenness for kittens.
In the up to date business push, the final character on that record has change into the star of the present. This follows a time-tested advertising and marketing technique: If it ain’t broke, don’t repair it.
With the success of Be You final yr, Amgen and AstraZeneca determined to build on its current forged of characters with a deeper dive into the again story of Hawk.
Flashing again to the beginning of his music profession, Hawk is seen rehearsing in a storage (with an asthma-triggering cat current, too). Ultimately, he’s capable of deal with his bronchial asthma signs by utilizing Tezspire.
The marketing campaign’s latest spot was unveiled earlier this fall in the course of the third week of September, coinciding with Asthma Peak Week, a time when bronchial asthma flares are at their highest.
Kristin Layton, shopper advertising and marketing director for respiratory at Amgen, describes the inspiration for the preliminary marketing campaign and its latest iteration as a various group of characters with a various group of triggers.
“When we did some research we saw that Hawk’s story in particular had some resonance and so we looked at his earlier life,” she says. “He had aspirations to be in a band and we built the narrative showing he could be in one and also still enjoy his love of cats. People related to his story.”
Leaning into animation has been key to the success of the Be You marketing campaign, as Caty Smith, govt director and U.S. head of selling for Tezspire at AstraZeneca, explains.
“It’s interesting because with real-life human characters, it can become generic and predictable and you are often limited to focusing on one person,” she says. “The current spot can pull in a diverse crowd, which is important with a condition like asthma. It is easier to make animation heart-warming and relatable and it also allows you to make the triggers stand out.”
The new iteration of the marketing campaign additionally options an extra forged member: Hana, who’s the results of suggestions from shoppers.
“Hana, an asthma specialist, was born out of what we hear often: that patients aren’t aware of specialists,” Layton says. “We wanted to give a face to what a specialist would look like and then make her approachable and give patients confidence to have a conversation. It was another way to support the physician-patient relationship.”
While the TV spot that includes Hawk is the principal focus of this section of Be You, Layton and Smith additionally observe that there have been quite a lot of updates to the Tezspire web site since final yr.
Both organizations have improved the positioning to offer a extra cohesive move whereas the physician dialogue information has been revised to make it extra dynamic. The ultimate aim is to encourage extra individualized and personalised discussions with physicians.
Though Hawk has been given the starring function within the TV spot, the Be You marketing campaign can be discovering methods to offer all its characters with alternatives to change into the lead stars in several deployments.
The prolonged narratives of those characters will seem throughout different channels going ahead, with each having their backstory earlier than and after Tezpire defined in better element.
For Smith, these deep dives into how Kai, Mel and different characters’ tales are, ultimately, about their bronchial asthma signs, in the beginning.
“Asthma is a symptomatic disease. If you aren’t recognizing your symptoms, you are ignoring them,” she says. “We hope with Hawk that people will see they are suffering in similar ways and then be inspired to do something like Hawk did and get back to living a life that you choose to live.”
