Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
Raising awareness to save lives
MedTech
On 17 April 1955, Albert Einstein, generally acknowledged to be one of the most intelligent minds ever, died due to a ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA). Nearly 70 years on, 82% of ruptured AAA cases are still fatal. Collaborating with a major, global healthcare company, we created an awareness campaign to resonate across Western Europe.
Challenge
This integrated patient focused, public health campaign, faced significant challenges:
- Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm isn’t well-known – in fact, part of the brief was to help remind GP’s and physicians to look out for the warning signs too
- It’s further complicated because it’s asymptomatic, so we had to rely on risk factors rather than physical warning signs to highlight the hazard
- As a trans-European campaign, language was a key factor – we needed a simple, easy to translate message supported by a strong visual symbol
Collaborate
The aorta runs from the heart, down through the abdomen. An AAA is a bulging of a weakened area of the aortic blood vessel – which can grow, like a small balloon, and rupture unexpectedly.
Generally, there are no symptoms, however, there are five key risk factors – age (over 65 years), sex (male), smoking, high blood pressure, and family history. The campaign objective was to alert potential sufferers and their caregivers of these key risk factors and encourage intelligent intervention – in the form of early screening – even when asymptomatic.
Create
We considered the use of acronyms as a mnemonic. However, we were concerned about how translatable an acronym would be across so many European languages. Therefore, it became clear the creative needed to communicate through symbolism.
An approach that would appeal and engage, without the necessity of language. The iconography of a red triangular traffic warning sign was familiar across nationalities and particularly resonated with the key target audience – men, over 65 years. The red circle, highlighting the area where an AAA is likely to occur in the body, added a further level of visual understanding. In market testing, in 7 European countries, this concept outperformed alternative creative approaches.
The integrated campaign included animation, social media, campaign landing pages, print collateral, and a digital AAA risk assessment tool.
Change
Encouraging screening is key to reducing the prevalence of fatal AAA’s. About 8 in every 10 people who have a burst AAA, die before they get to hospital or do not survive emergency surgery to repair it.
In the UK alone in 2021, approximately 288,000 men were offered screening with 2,045 aneurysms found. 8,340 men self-referred with 3.8% having an aneurysm detected. 875 men with large aneurysms were referred for surgery and 94.5% who were suitable for surgery, underwent elective repair.
Screening can pick up an AAA before it bursts. Across Europe, this campaign is building awareness amongst the key target audience and their caregivers and will support other healthcare initiatives in the move to effective, predictive prevention models, making access to screening more readily available.
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1.75
Million
Times content seen
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96167
Total engagement
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1215
Research interviews
