AstraZeneca is stepping back into Fasenra promotion to show how its asthma treatment can help people with asthma step back out.
The ad opens with a feed of social media posts on a tablet screen. In the top post, a woman sits alone in a kitchen under the text “asthma has me stuck in the great indoors.” As the voice-over explains that “asthma can make you miss out on those epic hikes with friends,” the woman climbs out of the screen, swings into the next post on the social feed and meets up with her mates in the great outdoors.
Across the rest of the 60-second ad, the voice-over discusses how Fasenra can help people step back out, highlighting its dosing schedule and ability to prevent asthma attacks as a succession of other people hop out of their social media posts. The people all go from being alone inside to outside with friends.
The ad hits similar beats to the “Move Forward With Fasenra” TV spots that AstraZeneca ran last year, when it showed how the drug can help people get back to activities that they “loved before asthma got in the way.” Speaking 10 months ago, Matt Gray, executive business director for Fasenra marketing at AstraZeneca, said the ads reflected conversations with asthma patients.
“They don't want the big aspirational go-climb-a-mountain thing,” Gray said. “They want something that's positive in their daily life, things like gardening, riding a motorcycle, getting out and doing some fishing. They want to feel normal enough to do the things that everyone can do.”
AstraZeneca is kicking off the new campaign in the wake of a year in which it grew (PDF) Fasenra sales 11% to top $1.5 billion. The uptick was fueled by a 50% jump in emerging markets and a 16% rise in Europe. In the U.S., AstraZeneca increased sales by 9%, a figure it attributed to Fasenra maintaining its share of a growing market.