Adults facing wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME) fear their world getting smaller due to loss of eyesight. Roche’s Genentech addresses that issue head-on in its first DTC ad for Vabysmo.
The new “Open up your world with Vabysmo” campaign was developed with input from patients, caregivers, advocacy groups and the retinal community impacted by wet AMD and DME.
“One of the critical insights was that many of these patients felt when they were losing their vision it made their world feel really small—they didn't get to go out as much, they weren't necessarily doing their daily activities of living because they felt like they were losing their sight and therefore inhibiting that ability,” Jennifer Kim, Genentech’s vice president and head of ophthalmology, said.
“So that's how we developed that concept around open up your world. The idea of the campaign is to show how getting treatments with Vabysmo can actually help to open up their world again by improving their vision."
In the spot, a women in an eye doctor’s office talks about how Vabysmo is opening up her world. To illustrate the new possibilities in her life, the woman creates an eye-shaped opening in the doctor’s office which leads her to a gorgeous sunny beach where she’s spending the day with her family; from there, she opens another eye-shaped portal, this time to her yard where she is gardening. Then there’s hiking, and the final portal reveals the Vabysmo logo.
It’s a multichannel campaign with the spot focusing on the wet AMD diagnosis. Research showed that DME patients were better reached through targeted ads on preferred channels such as online video, audio, digital point of care and office materials.
Vabysmo got the green light in 2022 and is the first and only FDA-approved treatment designed to block two causes of wet AMD (VEGF and Ang-2§). It’s also the first and only injectable eye treatment for wet AMD and DME approved in the U.S. to go up to four months between injections while still improving and maintaining vision. The shots are given from one to up to four months apart after the initial monthly doses.