Ionis
Designing experiences for people with a rare disease in which food can literally kill them.
Patient and Physician Websites
ID developed two different audience-centric websites for disease education and awareness. The first was FCSFocus.com, a disease awareness website designed to educate patients and caregivers living the disease and provided them with unparalleled tools and resources to help them live a healthy FCS-lifestyle. The second website, TGAware.com was developed specifically for HCPs who have patients living with FCS and severe hypertriglyceridemia (sHTG).
Website Analytics
Monthly analytics presentations provided the team with valuable insights about our target audience as well as their unique psychographics. Our drivers campaigns (social media and email) and website downloadable content on the website helped to substantially increase conversions through opting into the websites.
Patient and Caregiver Toolkits
EASING THE BURDEN OF DISEASE
To help patients and caregivers live a healthier lifestyle and reduce the incidences of pancreatitis we created the FCS Carebook, FCS Emergency Carebook and FCS Nutrition Toolkit.
The FCS Carebook helped patients track and manage the medical aspect of living with a rare disease, and included a 3-ring binder with daily symptom trackers, medical history logs, lipid trackers, appointment logs and a sample letter to doctors unfamiliar with the disease.
The FCS Emergency Carebook helped expedite ER check-ins for patients suffering from a pancreatitis attack.
The FCS Nutrition Toolkit helped patients and caregivers live a healthier lifestyle. With over two dozen pages of dietitian approved cooking tips, grocery lists, diet jump-starts, FCS-friendly snacks, low-fat recipes and various strategies to increase the flavors of an otherwise bland diet and how to cook for a multi-person family where other family members could eat normally.
Brand Standards and Guidelines
The FCS Focus Brand Guidelines provide stakeholders with practical recommendations on how best to manifest the visual and verbal elements of the FCS Focus brand in order to maintain visual consistency and increase memorability of the brand across all channels and applications. Guidelines included detailed usage rules regarding application of the service mark, brand identity, verbal tonality, color palettes, photography, illustration style, iconography, and graphic assets for use.
Genetic Testing
Because FCS is a rare genetic disease, ID created a series of tools, resources and communications to help educate patients, caregivers and their HCPs about the role that genes play in FCS and how they are inherited. Communications also introduced patients to Akcea’s no-cost genetic testing program and provided them an opportunity to have themselves tested, as well as other family members.
Social Media advertising for FCS Genetic Testing
Commissioned & Curated Photography
People living with FCS belong to a rare community of patients, caregivers and healthcare providers. ID identified select patients and caregivers to participate in a series of video and photo shoots to create storytelling opportunities for other patients to connect with and learn from. Below are some of the patient and nutrition content we created.
FCS Awareness Day
We created the branded Voices and Victories campaign and Stories of Hope video series to help Akcea and Ionis celebrate Rare Disease Day – a global recognition of people living with rare genetic disorders. To differentiate the campaign for other awareness communications ID created a naming strategy, brand identity and digital advertising.
Brand Identity Naming and Design
Patient and Caregiver Videos
Branded ZOOM Teleconference Backgrounds
Digital Drivers Campaigns
ID created a series of digital drivers to connect with and drive patients and caregivers to FCSFocus.com. Once on the website, ID used a ‘give-to-get’ strategy to help patients and caregivers opt-in to the website and download free tools, resources and information.
Facebook advertising
Email campaigns
FCS Awareness (Ionis employees)
Creating a compelling brand isn’t just an external strategy to customers, it also needs to be internalized by employees. ID leveraged the holiday season (which can be daunting for FCS patients living a low-fat diet) as an opportunity to connect with employees as well as patients. To this end, we created a series of educational videos for patients, caregivers and Akcea/Ionis employees where we shared holiday recipes, nutritional tips and eating strategies from dieticians and therapists.
To help Ionis and Akcea employees better understand the burden and challenges of living with a rare disease like FCS, we created an internal FCS education campaign and employee challenge. Though a series of on-site posters, emails and social media we asked Akcea and Ionis employees to live a low-fat diet for a week. To help them succeed, we designed FCS branded swag and provided them with low-fat recipes and food items and challenged them to stick to the FCS-friendly nutrition plan.
The campaign was a raging success and helped Ionis and Akcea garner accolades from third-party public relations and broadcast news stories.
ALS Newsletter
FCS is one of many diseases Ionis is developing treatments for. For patients living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) ID designed the ALS Newsletter – a monthly brochure that included patient stories and updates on new treatments in Ionis’ pipeline.
