Horizon has been racking up marketing campaigns in 2022, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down, enlisting New York Times best-selling author Lori Gottlieb to highlight the emotional burden of living with thyroid eye disease (TED).
The set-up comes in the form of a letter-writing campaign called “Dear TED”, which encourages those suffering with the disease to “write to their disease” about how it makes them feel but also how they can regain control of their lives. TED can cause vision problems and physical issues like bulging eyes.
It is being spearheaded by Horizon and Gottlieb, a psychotherapist and author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, and comes deliberately during May, which is both Mental Health Awareness and Healthy Vision Month.
“Living with a rare or chronic disease is a very personal experience that can sometimes feel isolating and overwhelming,” said Gottlieb in a statement. “Sharing this experience in an open letter to your disease is not only therapeutic, but it can help others to feel less alone and inspired to speak up about their own symptoms and seek care sooner.”
The campaign also has an online video of three-time Olympic gold medalist and track athlete Gail Devers, who has visibly red and sore eyes from the disease, writing her own personal letter to TED, which she described as her “unwanted house guest for 30 years.”
Devers joined up with Horizon last year to help raise awareness and is also taking part in this latest campaign. “My relationship with TED hasn’t been easy, but because of what I’ve been through, I take pride in everything I’ve accomplished,” Devers said. “I hope that sharing my ‘Dear TED’ letter can be a source of support for others and inspire them to do the same.”
Horizon nabbed an FDA approval for Tepezza in thyroid eye disease in January 2020 and made $501 million in the first quarter of 2022, making it the company’s biggest-selling drug.
This isn’t Horizon’s first campaign for the disease: Ahead of its Tepezza approval back in 2019, the company launched “Listen to Your Eyes,” an unbranded awareness campaign designed to help build up a social media community around the disease.
But amid the pandemic, when so many ophthalmologists were forced to close their doors during the lockdown phases of COVID, the company switched things up and launched its first DTC campaign. This was to help boost awareness of its network of more than 1,000 infusion centers, as well as its move to digital communications with doctors.
This came after Horizon built a network of more than 1,000 infusion centers, moved to digital communications with doctors and took its message directly to consumers as it tried to keep Tepezza available during lockdown.
The company has also seen a glut of marketing pushes in the last five months for other diseases, including in February joining up with internet sensation ‘Doug the Pug’ to bring lyrical awareness to rare diseases, and in March tapping 'MasterChef' winner Christine Ha to add culinary marketing flair to vision disease awareness.