Understand unbranded—The best practices, opportunities, and timing

There is an art to executing great disease awareness campaigns—particularly in the instance of a complex or rare disease. In a recent Q&A panel with PM360, Allison Davis, General Manager at Fishawack Health, shared her insights on the most effective strategies for developing unbranded disease awareness campaigns. The following includes her key advice to drive a disease awareness campaign that will empower and meet the needs of patients and healthcare professionals.

When developing a disease awareness campaign, the priority should be driving a true connection with the intended audience. This means discovering how a disease impacts multiple facets of patients’ lives, their relationships, their families, and their identities. To do that, you need to be immersed in the experience of the patients, their families, and the doctors who treat them. This is particularly true for misunderstood disease states, where patients undergo a complex diagnostic journey that often leads to feelings of isolation and mistrust. In these cases, clinicians may have little or no experience with the disease and they, too, may feel helpless when it comes to treating their patients.

The Difference Between a Good and Great Campaign

If a good campaign drives a connection between a brand and its audience, a great campaign takes this a step further, strengthening the relationship between clinicians and patients through shared understanding, empathy, and responsibility. A great campaign is rooted in insight about the patient and prioritizes relevance above all.

The disease awareness campaign is the ideal time to build clarity and forge connections to ensure these stakeholders speak the same language; the patient feels empowered and the physician understands the patients’ needs and goals for their quality of life. Here, storytelling is a crucial tool in your arsenal, helping balance scientific rigor and accuracy with clarity and emotional connection. You can then take HCPs and patients on a unified learning journey that provides high-quality, easily discoverable, disease information.

When done well, a compelling, relevant, and insight-driven disease awareness campaign will empower patients and clinicians by providing a shared sense of understanding that revolutionizes the patient experience and in turn, builds the foundation for a branded campaign that realizes the full potential of the brand.

 

*A version of this content was originally published in PM360. Read the full piece and all the experts’ responses here.