Data shows that 387 million people have diabetes worldwide and the number of those diagnosed is increasing year on year, indicating that a new approach to the underlying problems must be found.
There have been numerous campaigns around diabetes awareness and prevention over the past years, however, none have been able to reverse the figures.
To drive awareness about the seriousness of diabetes es DIABETES, TÓMATELA EN SERIO (it is DIABETES, TAKE IT SERIOUSLY) was created and launched in 2011 by the Diabetes Alliance.
Our challenge was to provide something truly unique that would get the attention of those most at risk to developing this largely preventable disease
H+K realised that the most effective way to do this was to tell the story through the eyes of two seniors taking control of their diabetes through modifying their lifestyles over a 12 week period. All carefully monitored by their doctor, nutritionist and personal trainer and with support of key associations.
The overriding value of the documentary is that it’s a completely true story: the content is entirely real, there is no script. Making it far more likely that it would resonate with the target audience we wanted to reach.
In addition what is unique from other campaigns is that the Senior Challenge is not the doctor, but the patients who deliver the messaging that we wanted to get across making the audience feel easily able to identify with Mercedes and Paco.
Trade and lay press were invited to the ‘premiere’ in a cinema in Madrid city centre, where a lively discussion between Mercedes and Paco, their treating physicians and the audience, coincided with World Diabetes Day.
In parallel, we manage the appearance of the documentary in the morning magazine of the national television in Spain (La 1). This program concentrates most of the television audience of our target public (+65).
We directly reached our main target audience performing a total of 25 showings of the documentary in Spanish diabetes patients associations. In collaboration with FEDE, the film is accompanied by a talk given by an expert on diabetes.