BREAK THE CYCLE

Issue: LivaNova, a medical device company, developed a technology to treat a rare form of drug-resistant epilepsy. Only that was 20 years ago and despite years of proven safety and efficacy, the device was perceived as outdated. No matter how consistent the results, doctors continued to prescribe harmful drugs to patients who saw no real improvement. We needed to change the therapy’s image among physicians and give patients a fighting chance.

Insight: Physicians were chasing false hope. While they understood the risks of prescribing these medications, doctors were tempted by big pharma’s promise of possibility, despite no evidence these drugs would ever work. Physicians were playing a dangerous game of trial and error.

Idea: Break the cycle of ineffective drugs. To shake physicians out of complacency and provoke them to think differently about a device treatment, we took a bold approach that called out physicians who were stuck in the old way of doing things.

Impact: Six months since the campaign launch, LivaNova recognized a 26% increase in sales even without the brand’s first patient-focused campaign, which launched later that year.