Technology has made our lives easier. We have grown used to our problems being solved fast. This has not only affected services, but also healthcare. We don’t want to feel sick so, why should we? In Sweden, the only way to get antibiotics is to visit the doctor. Many Swedes wrongly think antibiotics can help if they have a cold or flu. During the infectious season between September and April, many swedes go to the doctor, making the wanting time for people in real need of medical attention long. Meanwhile, resistance to antibiotics is on the rise and one of the biggest threats to global health. LIF and the Swedish Pharmacy Association wanted to inform and educate the Swedish people on how to treat themselves. Without eating antibio

We conducted a nation-wide survey where we asked swedes how they’d usually do when they start to feel sick and how they treat it. The survey proved the need of the campaign. It showed that 20% wrongly thought antibiotics would help if they had a cold or flu and only 8% went to the pharmacy the last time they were infected. Research also showed many go online if they feel sick to look up the symptoms and in many cases this makes them go to the doctor. We needed to find a way to reach people on how to treat themselves before they decide to go to the doctor to get antibiotics. Our solution became to use the online-searches to reach the ones who were sick, and the survey to reach the ones not yet infected and not looking for advic

We created a website where the visitor could read about anything regarding the cold or flu, everything from how avoid it and how to treat it to different stages of infection. On this site, we also introduced the Cold Map. This map allowed the viewer to see how high the risk was of catching a cold in different parts and regions of Sweden – all in real time. The map was based on google searches related to colds. If the number of searches in one area was high, so was the risk of infection. To onboard people looking for help with minimum wastage, we used programmatic buying and SEO/SEM. We used facts from our survey to use for PR during the entire campaign period to reach people who was not already infected and actively searching for hel

It only six of the 25-week long campaign window we reached 70% of the Swedes, which was the campaign goal. 90% of the people reached associated the campaign to the pharmacy and 58% got an improved perception of the pharmacy’s ability to help. Almost 50% of people reached got a better perception of healing without prescription-medication. During high season for colds from September to December, the campaign was mentioned in over 120 news outlets, giving it 97 000 earned media impressions, daily. After being reached by the campaign, almost half claims they’ve been treating themselves for colds and flu without going to the doctor for antibiotics.