DIGI-DOPE

TitleDIGI-DOPE
BrandANDERZORG
Product/ServiceNTB
Category B01. Brand-led Education & Awareness
Entrant XXS AMSTERDAM Schiphol, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation XXS AMSTERDAM Schiphol, THE NETHERLANDS
Media Placement MINDSHARE Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
PR RIANNE DE VRIES Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production XXS AMSTERDAM Schiphol, THE NETHERLANDS
Credits
Name Company Position
Paul van Uden XXS Amsterdam Creative
Anne-Maro Huberts XXS Amsterdam Creative
John de Vries XXS Amsterdam Creative Director
René Verbong XXS Amsterdam Creative Director
Michael van den Brande XXS Amsterdam Strategy Director
Robert-Jan Hoesman XXS Amsterdam Design Director
Annika Timmer XXS Amsterdam Account Manager
Josien de Heul XXS Amsterdam Producer
Jasper Baartmans XXS Amsterdam Producer
Kreukvrij Kreukvrij Motion Graphics

Describe any restrictions or regulations regarding Healthcare/RX/Pharma communications in your country/region including

Many, but none are applicable to this case.

Describe the target audience and why your work is relevant to them. Pharma audience types:

Phone addiction is just like any other addiction. It has the same symptoms, neurochemical reactions and psychological dependencies. It is not explicitly part of the DSM-5 and remains therefore largely undiagnosed. Anderzorg generated awareness for this unknown issue by educating the addicts about the causes and consequences of their addiction.

Background

Anderzorg is a Dutch health insurer in the no-frills segment. They had recently lost its largest advantage: the lowest price. Competition in this commoditized sector was rising and sign-ups through comparison sites increased. It became paramount that Anderzorg pivoted their communications from sales activation to brand building. To add (brand) value to justify our relative higher price. To build more value for our audience, the communications platform ‘Zorg voor #deleven’ (translated: ‘Care for #thelife’) was launched. In the Netherlands, #deleven is a popular hashtag used to caption the parts of life you remember. With this platform, Anderzorg made it her mission to let young people live their life to the fullest. Through online content visible throughout the year, the brand didn’t just promise more #deleven, but actually helped people overcome modern health obstacles preventing millennials from living their life. This campaign is about one of those obstacles: phone addiction.

Why is this work relevant for Branded Content & Entertainment?

Anderzorg was able to get social media addicts to stop and consider their behavior by leveraging the social platform against itself. By giving these addicts exactly the stimuli their brain was looking for we were able to infiltrate their instagram stories and educate them about their excessive phone use. By reframing what entertainment means to the digitally addicted (a shot of dopamine to the brain) and creating engaging and easy-to-consume branded content around the problem, we were able to make a real change in people's lives and help them live healthier.

Describe the creative idea

Phone addiction has a profound impact on mental and physical health. Many millennials know they use their phones too much, but don’t feel the need to do something about it. How do we get these young people to think about their addiction, when they can’t take their eyes of the latest instagram story? How do we get the attention of addicts? By dealing dope ourselves! That is how Anderzorg introduced DigiDope: an Instagram channel that dealt digital dopamine in the form of likes and comments. When you follow DigiDope, you get a shot of free social attention. After the addicts followed our channel, Anderzorg showed up in their Instagram stories to educate them about their phone use. Together with psychobiologist Boy, our audience learned about the effect of phones on their brains, the consequences of phone addiction and advice on how to trick your brain into going cold turkey.

Describe the execution

We followed the MO of a dealer. First, we gave them a taste: a short teaser on social media asked people if they wanted a shot of DigiDope. The only thing they had to do was follow @digidope on Instagram. When they did, we sent them a shot of DigiDope with our custom-built API: an overwhelming stream of likes and comments that would tickle the part of their brain associated with pleasure: they got their shot. Once they followed our instagram, we started rehab. Anderzorg showed up in their Instagram stories and eased them into the road to recovery with short, snappy and entertaining videos explaining the chemical effects on our brains, why they were probably not sleeping well and gave tips on how to go cold turkey. Celebrities and influencers also asked for shots and shared about their experience with phone addiction and rehab, turning DigiDope into an epidemic.

Describe the strategy

Phones and applications are built to grab our attention and keep us coming back. The notifications, beeps and constant stream of information cause a neurochemical reaction in our brains: it releases dopamine - the pleasure hormone. This keeps us coming back to our phones and checking it on average 150 times a day. And excessive phone use can be dangerous: it increases chances of depression, contributes to social isolation and relationship problems, decreases sleep quality and can lead to eye strain and neck injuries. Many people want to use their phone less, but they are constantly drawn back in by carefully engineered techniques developed by multi-billion dollar companies depending on their attention. However, research showed that once phone addicts realized the physiological impact of their phones on their brains, they are more likely to alter their behavior. All we needed to do was get them to stop scrolling and listen.

Describe the outcome

During the campaign, Anderzorg dealt over a million likes and comments to an addicted audience. By giving our addicts a ‘taste’ of DigiDope we were able to get into the spot where their addiction takes place: their Instagram feed. We educated more than 3,6 million people directly (through our feed) or indirectly (through sharing on social) about the causes, symptoms and dangers of phone addiction. The campaign ran in three phases (teasing, education, recap) and received more than 15 million impressions. Brand consideration for Anderzorg increased from 28% to 43% and preference from 5% to 8%. A key driver of consideration ‘A refreshing brand’ increased from 70% to 75%. The long term effects of our overall strategy and creative approach have been equally successful: Anderzorg’s spontaneous awareness jumped from 5% to 15%, preference from 3 to 7% and the brand has doubled in market share.