Excellence in Multichannel Communications

Summary of work

Breaking Depressionis a pan-European disease awareness campaign created by Janssen EMEA and Publicis Health to enable the wider public, with support from HCPs, to better understand and help those with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).

Janssen was moving into MDD, a severe form of depression affecting 40 million people in Europe. With no innovation in 30 years, MDD was poorly recognised and understood. Though most people want to help, few feel comfortable broaching the subject due to the associated stigma. By encouraging more conversations, could we help more people feel able to speak up?

The concept of feeling ‘broken’ is symbolic of MDD and a multidiscipline agency team leveraged the insight behind the ancient Japanese art of kintsugi to create Breaking Depression. Kintsugi, translating as ‘golden joinery’, involves repairing broken objects with gold lacquer, treating breakage and repair as part of an object’s history, not something to be concealed. Analogous to managing MDD, it respects the cracks, while recognising that the repair is complex and takes time.

A multichannel campaign was designed to maximise cut-through via social, digital, face-to-face and out-of home touch points in partnership with HCPs, PAGs and artists to help tell our story, raise awareness and improve understanding.

Judges' comments

A bold and relevant campaign and a stand out winner. The judges loved the creativity and how the concept was meaningful to both the disease and sufferers. Great execution across channels with very clear outcomes. Encouraging to see a client invest heavily in such an emotive and visually led campaign.