With the help of AI, AstraZeneca’s three-in-one inhaler Breztri has a new furry mascot to help it stand tall over the crowded asthma drug field.
Breztri, which recently scored an expanded asthma indication after taking home its first chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) nod in 2020, combines a long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) with an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) and a long-acting beta2-adrenergic agonist (LABA).
Playing on the LAMA drug class name, AZ’s new Breztri campaign features an AI-generated llama in an unexpected office setting to urge patients to “put a LAMA to work.”
In the one-minute spot, a business-casual llama works a late night in the office with his coworkers, a goat and an oryx, as a voiceover explains the attributes of the only three-in-one asthma maintenance inhaler for those 12 years of age and older. The trio goes on to take part in typical and humorous workplace scenarios, such as the automated lights going off or one goat colleague pressing all of the elevator buttons.
The clever way of transforming complex treatment terminology into an animal that shares its namesake was AstraZeneca’s way of “breaking through that noise” to provide asthma education in a way that was “really meaningful,” AZ marketing senior director Katie Pansegrau explained in an interview with Fierce Pharma Marketing.
“We were going to need to do something clever,” Pansegrau recalled.
Of course, putting a real-life llama in a tie and a cubicle might be a tall task. Thus, the idea “kind of led itself to AI,” Pansegrau said.
Edelman, which teamed up with AZ to create the campaign, used the help of AI tools to help it through each step of its traditional production process. While it was necessary to help “make a llama walk and push an elevator button,” the technology “never changed our standards” or the education goal of the campaign, Pansegrau emphasized.
“No matter what tools we use to make the work, this work had to disrupt,” Edelman SVP and group creative director Brian Wood added. “It had to break through.”
Still, the campaign could stand as a “shining example of what it can mean for future work,” Wood noted, referring to AI’s creative prowess.
Aside from the overt humor of the animals-in-the-office situation, the ad is full of subtle winks, such as the onyx working on “herd dynamics” slides and posters in the office displaying barnyard puns. The comedic aspect of the campaign hearkens back to AZ’s goal of breaking through the noise and helping “drive understanding” for patients, Pansegrau pointed out.
“This triple therapy, we believe, is something that every patient that's eligible should know about," Wood said. "LAMA certainly helped us make that message more memorable and, frankly, more entertaining,” Wood said.
AZ plans to spread the ad across connect channels and social media platforms where it can best make its audience “stop the scroll,” according to Pansegrau.
The company’s marketing for the drug has long leaned on creative themes, such as an animated approach that depicts patients walking into a colorful world upon starting on Breztri or its vacation-themed promotions that sees people transported into an RV or a cruise ship thanks to the med.
Last year, Breztri picked up $1.2 billion in annual sales for AZ as one of its key blockbuster products, rising 23% from 2024. The new asthma nod Breztri earned earlier this year is expected to further help the drug chip in on the company’s goal of reaching $80 billion in revenues by 2030.