Excedrin Case Study

Excedrin wanted to create a campaign showing how difficult it can be to beat a migraine at work while also showing the benefits of Excedrin. Migraines are a very common ailment many people suffer with in day to day life. They can affect daily activities and cause a large amount of pain for those who suffer. 

Background information and Research

This exact campaign builds off of last year’s Excedrin Migraine Experience, where friends and family of migraine sufferers could experience their migraine symptoms, like visual aura, sensitivity to light and sound and dizziness, in augmented reality (AR). This gave the illusion of a painful migraine and made friends and family understand the symptoms. 

Excedrin worked with Weber Shandwick, PHD Media and Epsilon agencies to create this campaign. Excedrin Works has been ongoing since September 2017. 

Campaign and Results

Excedrin wanted migraines to be more understood by coworkers and bosses to kill the stigma of migraines. The campaign follows the experience of an EMT, pastry chef and interpreter as they deal with migraines during work hours and try to explain how the migraine feels using virtual reality and 360 degree video.

“Virtual reality (VR) is the ultimate empathy engine,” says Scott Yacovino, Excedrin senior brand manager. VR is allowing non-sufferers to understand what migraine sufferers actually go through. It is a strong tool to drive points across like no other creative medium. VR and Augmented Reality (AR) allow people to experience something through their own eyes. 

Excedrin brought racecar driver Danica Patrick to help promote the campaign. Having someone so popular for breaking into a male dominated sport, open up about her struggles with migraines can help empower the average sufferer. 

Through Excedrin’s research they found migraine sufferers to often feel misunderstood about their condition. So Excedrin created a migraine survival kit and discussion guide to treat migraines and approach the subject. 

Yacovino hopes the campaign will help foster a strong relationship between the Excedrin brand and migraine sufferers. The campaign has been seen as positive, and brought praise to Excedrin for bringing awareness to migraines. 

Results

Excedrin does a really nice job of showing emotions in their campaigns. They take a very hard-to-explain subject and find a way to show how it truly feels to have migraines daily. Just having the commercial campaign seemed as if it wouldn’t be much of an impact, but releasing the survival kit and discussion guide on top of the commercial brought home the topic. Through these efforts, Excedrin showed their customers they truly do care about them and what happens to them. The kits and guides also showed Excedrin’s commitment to breaking into the workplace and proving the importance of migraine discussions between peers and bosses.

I think this campaign was smart and adaptive to their already successful campaigns. I would like to see Excedrin reach more into the teen and young adults demographic since they are also sufferers and sometimes are judged for faking those types of conditions.