Lundbeck wants migraine suffers to say “nope” to doing more and “yep” to doing less with their condition as the core message of its new campaign for Vyepti.
The “Say Yep” initiative plays on the yep in Vyepti, the pharma’s intravenous migraine prevention therapy that was approved by the FDA exactly four years ago next month. The therapy brought in DKK 1 billion ($145.9 million) in 2022, double what it made in 2021 and driven by what Lundbeck said was “strong demand.”
The multi-channel media campaign is trying to reach the 40 million Americans who suffer from the often-debilitating condition. The message is to slow down and not push through the pain of a migraine.
The campaign “brings to life the brand’s empathetic understanding that people are doing a lot to manage migraine and deserve to do a little less, if possible,” a spokesperson from Lundbeck said.
“Say Yep subtly rejects the toxic positivity that is all too familiar for those with migraine in a memorable way to help create awareness for the brand,” they added.
As part of the campaign, there's a new website at Vyepti.com that, as soon as you enter, asks whether you’ve been prescribed Vyepti with either a “yep” or “nope” box. The site contains around two dozen patient video stories, as well as the capacity to upload your own story, and direct financial help to get access to Vyepti.
The site also inverts the “do more with” trope we often see in drug campaigns (think of Regeneron’s “Du More” with Dupixent) to “Do Less with Vyepti,” i.e., don’t push yourself when you are suffering with a migraine.
There is also a new 60-second ad that features an overzealous (and rather comically over-the-top) officer manager telling a migraine sufferer to work “around the clock,” to which she says, “Nope.”
The actor is then in a restaurant with an over-the-top waiter asking, “Who wants a recipe for sheer agony?” In response, the actor shouts, “No!”
Then we see the actor sitting in an IV chair to get Vyepti (the therapy comes as a four-times-a-year infusion), with a narrator asking: “Is it time to say yep to Vyepti?”
Vyepti exists within a major migraine market with many competing marketing campaigns, given its large consumer base. This includes drugs and campaigns from the likes of AbbVie, Biohaven/Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Teva, all of which have over the past few years launched new drugs for both prevention and treatment, as well as marketing campaigns to back them up.