A masterclass on mental resilience for a chronic illness, amplified by a social campaign

An Apple A Day guided the market launch of a new medicine for an international pharmaceutical company from positioning and strategy to full content development for prescribers and patients.

The challenge

This form of constipation falls between disciplines. Several specialties see the complaint come up, but no one really feels ownership of it. That made the first question strategic: which prescriber do you target, and what would move them to use a new treatment for this specific issue? A second layer came on top of that. Patients rarely raised the complaint themselves, even though that conversation is the starting point for treatment. Without a patient opening the topic, the prescribing moment never arrives.

The approach

Our conclusion: taking control doesn't start with more information, but with knowing how to manage your condition. So we flipped the approach. Instead of yet another informational campaign, we chose to focus on equipping people: the psychology behind living with a condition, dealing with uncertainty, building mental resilience, and standing up for yourself in a healthy way. And we deliberately chose video as the format. While written content floods the market, video fits how people take in information today. It's a growing trend, it performs strongly on social, and it makes a human, motivating story land far better than text does.

To bring that message across, we developed a masterclass featuring motivational speaker and trainer Michael Kortekaas and a real patient. The trainer brings the mental side and resilience, the patient brings recognition and the practicalities of real life. Together, the message became both inspiring and relatable: expert knowledge combined with the experience of someone who knows exactly what it's like.

One key theme was the conversation itself. For many patients, it's hard to talk about their condition, whether with loved ones, their healthcare provider, or at work. The campaign offered tools for exactly those conversations: how to bring it up, how to set your boundaries, and how to make sure you get what you need. This way, patients learned not only how to manage their condition, but also how to bring the people around them along in that process.

We developed the full campaign concept, from the creative idea to a recognizable design line that ran consistently through every expression. From the videos to the materials for the consultation room and the online content: everything came from one idea, so the campaign feels like a cohesive whole. The campaign was also created in collaboration with a patient foundation, which added recognition, trust, and grounding with the target audience. Activation ran along two tracks: through the healthcare provider, as a trusted source in the consultation room, and directly online through a social campaign. This way, a trusted source and broad reach reinforced each other.

The result

A launch with a sharp concept and a consistent story across every touchpoint. The creative idea gave a clinical topic a face that stuck with two very different audiences. Prescribers got a clear reason to act, patients a reason to open the conversation. The collaboration has now continued for several years and is expanding to new treatments and campaigns. [Room for a hard number: reach, growth in prescribers, or awareness among the target audience.