Title	THROMBOSIS: EDUCATION, ENGAGEMENT AND PERCEPTION CHANGE
Brand	BAYER AG
Product/Service	N/A
Category	G01. Patient Engagement Utilities
Entrant	FLEISHMANHILLARD FISHBURN London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	FLEISHMANHILLARD FISHBURN London, UNITED KINGDOM
PR	FLEISHMANHILLARD FISHBURN London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production	FLEISHMANHILLARD FISHBURN London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Emma Miles	Fleishmanhillard Fishburn	Senior Producer

The Campaign

Many resources available for stroke focus on providing resources to identify and reduce your risk of stroke, targeting those specifically who may be at risk of stroke. However, we found that there was an untold story around stroke that often went missed: the story of the care partner. The care partner plays an important role in supporting stroke survivors on their road to recovery, with many often taking on this for the first time, sometime unexpectedly. As part of this, mentorship plays a significant role in preparing both stroke survivor and care partner for this lifestyle change and new path to recovery.

Creative Execution

Our goal was to provide a resource for those affected by stroke that they felt they could emotionally relate to, while also providing resources they could also use on their path to recovery. The project was delivered via a range of channels including a resource-rich website for patients and their caregivers. Whilst arming them with knowledge aimed at prevention, the website also champions human stories of survival, including in the form of a freely downloadable audiobook authored and narrated by Sas Freeman about her journey. To take the personal perspective a step further, we shot a series of videos featuring Simon, who suffered his first stroke in 2008, changing his life forever. Following his third stroke, Simon’s sister and care partner reached out to Sas to offer advice, guidance and support, which is featured in the video. We shared the story across SAS, Bayer and Sas Freeman's social channels.

Bayer has become among the most comprehensive users of social media within the pharma industry, which clearly demonstrates the company’s deep understanding of key stakeholders: the patient and prescribing physicians. Sign Against Stroke’s social media presences such as @SignAgnstStroke regularly achieve top ranking positions in terms of influence (mentions received), productivity (volume of posts), and visibility (page impressions generated) across relevant hashtags like #AFib and #stroke both in the industry-leading Symplur healthcare hashtag monthly rankings, and at the numerous conferences covered on site by the account. Sign Against Stroke social channels have garnered: @SignAgnstStroke: 29.6K followers Sign Against Stroke (Facebook): 237.1k likes The video snippets of Sas, Simon and Lindsay, since uploaded following World Stroke Day, have garnered 75+ views.

We wanted to create a dedicated, unbranded educational resource for stroke survivors and their care partners and combine it with social media channels to effectively reach audiences as comprehensively as possible, while using a balanced approach to consider needs of all affected by stroke. We capitalized on World Stroke Day 2017 as a key moment where peak discussions would surround stroke to announce our growing support.

To ensure we were providing a truly authentic story, we reached out to stroke survivors and care partners that closely followed the campaign to ask them what they wanted to see from us, and what would make for a truly reputable and useful resource for themselves and others in their situation. To convey the personal narrative of those affected by stroke from all perspectives of the condition, we wanted to tie it to an important milestone worldwide where we knew discussions would be focused around stroke. We chose World Stroke Day 2017 to launch their stories and collaborated with well-known stroke survivor Sas Freeman, author, writer and mentor, as well as Simon and his sister Lindsay, stroke survivor and care partner, to completely rebrand and redesign the Sign Against Stroke website in a way that resonated with our audiences.