Respiratory Congress AR Exhibition Experience
Client:
Respiratory brand
Sector:
Healthcare
Audience:
Delegates
Using tech to connect with an audience in a human way
We created an AR exhibition experience to paint a picture of life with & without our client’s product – for people living with a progressive lung disease.
ERS is the world’s biggest respiratory congress drawing 20,000 attendees each year. Of course, it’s a major date in the calendars of all our pharma clients.
Through working with our client’s brand for a few years, we’ve gained a solid understanding of their strategy, brand positioning and sales narrative and have a history of pushing the creative limits for what you can build in the ERS exhibition hall. So we were in the enviable position of joining forces with our client to shape the 2018 brief together.
Our client’s respiratory product is a drug that extends life by an extra 2-3 years by slowing the progression of a lung disease called IPF. It helps patients to hold on to their independence while giving them more years to live their life. This was the key message to be conveyed to healthcare professionals and so the brief focused on memories, stories, opportunities and life.
We needed to create a completely novel way for healthcare professionals to experience and engage with the patient stories at the congress.
We decided we would show them the dramatic transformation the product offered. We would transport them from a house that feels cold and restricting to a happy home full of memories, stories, opportunities – full of life.
The result was a triple-award-winning exhibition booth. But how?
Joining up our scientific engagement, creative, environments and immersive teams we came up with the concept of a ‘white-out’ space that would come to life in full colour through the lens of a tablet’s camera.
We built one environment physically – a normal, domestic setting but devoid of colour – and our designers and developers built a second augmented reality environment, digitally.
Blank photo frames reveal memories available to patients through the extra time that the product has given them.
Holding the tablet up to an empty window reveals the view at the end of a garden changing through the seasons demonstrating that patients can stay on treatment for longer.
Flat cut-out trees transport you to a 3D immersive park scene full of light and activity highlighting that patients on the product can continue enjoying an active lifestyle for longer.
Point the camera at a photo album, and it fills with beautiful wedding photos from the daughter’s wedding that you’ve lived to see, and been healthy enough to walk her down the aisle.
We used multi-sensory cues to enhance the digital experience, with directional sound and ambient scent to complete the ‘through the looking glass’ experience and bring scenes like the park to life.
Hundreds of the world’s leading pulmonologists experienced our ‘AR House’ transformation – first drawn in by the unique ‘white-out’ world we’d created and then immersed in the colourful digital world hidden beneath the surface.
Our onsite team at the congress coached the client’s booth reps to give them the confidence and skills to ensure that the digital solution was a seamless and entertaining experience.
Visitors to the house spent an average of 5 minutes interacting with the AR content. 5 minutes without booth reps intervening is a long time in the exhibition world.
The tech encouraged delegates to spend the time developing an emotive connection with patient stories – and richer conversations with booth reps.
419 individual users
6608 messages triggered
5min average interaction time
And above all, visitors made an emotional connection and understanding of the impact this product could have on someone’s life. The brand’s customers walked away with a deeper understanding of the product’s key message.
Our stand acted as a catalyst for a change in mindsets and sales of the product in Europe increased by 17% last year.
As well as the emotional impact on visitors to ERS, our work on this show made waves at an industry awards – winning two bronzes and a silver in 3 categories: craft, interactivity and innovation. Needless to say, this was fantastic news for the agency – but our client also had this to say…
