An award-winning AR exhibition experience connecting with audiences
To paint a picture of life before and after treatment at a major respiratory congress.
Creating an innovative way to help healthcare professionals experience the world of their patients is a huge task.
We crafted an Augmented Reality (AR) exhibition experience to show how effective treatment can transform a patient’s world from a bland white to technicolor. This is the story of how we did it…
The challenge.
Co-creating the brief
ERS is the world’s biggest respiratory congress, drawing 20,000 attendees each year. It’s a major date in the calendars of all our pharma clients.
Through working with our client’s brand for a few years, we’ve gained a solid understanding of their strategy, brand positioning, and sales narrative, and have a history of pushing the creative limits of what can be built in the ERS exhibition hall. Therefore, we were in the enviable position of joining forces with our client to shape the 2018 brief together.
Our client’s respiratory product is a drug that extends life by an extra 2–3 years by slowing the progression of a lung disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), allowing patients to hold on to their independence. This was the key message to be conveyed to healthcare professionals, and so the brief focused on memories, stories, opportunities, and life.
Breathing life into a blank exhibition space
We needed to create a completely novel way for healthcare professionals to experience and engage with the patient stories at the congress.
We decided we would show them the dramatic transformation the product offered. We would transport them from a house that feels cold and restricting to a happy home full of memories, stories, opportunities – full of life.
The result was a triple-award-winning exhibition booth. But how?
The solution.
Through the lens
Joining up our Scientific Engagement, Creative, Environments, and Immersive teams, we came up with the concept of a “white-out” space that would come to life in full color through the lens of a tablet’s camera.
We built one environment physically – a normal, domestic setting but devoid of color – and our Designers and Developers built a second AR environment, digitally.
Blank photo frames revealed memories available to patients through the extra time that the product had given them. Holding the tablet up to an empty window revealed the view at the end of a garden changing through the seasons, demonstrating that patients can stay on treatment for longer. Flat, cut-out trees transported the user to a 3D immersive park scene full of light and activity, highlighting that patients on the product can continue enjoying an active lifestyle for longer. When pointing the camera at a photo album, it filled with beautiful wedding photos from the daughter’s wedding that you’d lived to see, and been healthy enough to walk her down the aisle.
We used multi-sensory cues to enhance the digital experience, with directional sound and ambient scent to complete the “through the looking glass” experience and bring scenes like the park to life.
The results.
Lots of house visitors
Hundreds of world-leading pulmonologists experienced our “AR House” transformation – first drawn in by the unique “white-out” world we’d created and then immersed in the colorful digital world hidden beneath the surface.
Our on-site team at the congress coached the client’s booth reps to give them the confidence and skills to ensure that the digital solution was a seamless and entertaining experience.
Visitors to the house spent an average of five minutes interacting with the AR content. Five minutes without booth reps intervening is a long time in the exhibition world.
The tech encouraged delegates to spend the time developing an emotive connection with patient stories – and richer conversations with booth reps.
The big takeaway
Above all, visitors made an emotional connection and formed an understanding of the impact this product could have on a patient’s life. The brand’s customers walked away with a deeper understanding of the product’s key message.
Commercial impact
Our stand acted as a catalyst for a change in mindsets, and sales of the product in Europe increased by 17% last year.
Accolades
As well as the emotional impact on visitors to ERS, our work on this show made waves at an industry awards, winning two bronzes and a silver in three categories: craft, interactivity, and innovation. Needless to say, this was fantastic news for the agency – but our client also had this to say…
The awards are great – congratulations on winning them. For us, the important thing is not just this recognition of the brilliant work you do, but the way your team partners with us. They are brilliant to deal with, very professional, and make the process easy – even when things get tricky, they are terrific to deal with. For us, this balance is the important thing – the teamwork, the journey, and the content. You should be very proud of your team.
International Product Manager