PFIZER

Reframing Sickle Cell Pain

Peer-to-peer education designed to dismantle emergency department misconceptions about sickle cell patients — strategy and creative retained by Pfizer.

Role
Creative Director

Agency
Eveo (Capgemini Invent)

Timeline
2018–2019, 12 months

Deliverables
SCDTruths Educational Platform · Video Series · Clinical Print Advertisements · Point-of-Care Materials · Medical Congress Exhibit

The Challenge

Emergency department physicians held entrenched misconceptions about sickle cell patients — mischaracterizing pain crises as drug-seeking, carrying unconscious bias into treatment decisions, and working from outdated knowledge of sickle cell disease (SCD) management. Those beliefs were a barrier to both patient care and adoption of Pfizer’s new SCD treatment. The campaign had to change minds in a skeptical, time-pressed audience — using voices they would actually trust.

Approach

The strategy was research-first: an insight-discovery phase surfaced the specific misconceptions driving poor care, and everything downstream targeted those root causes rather than symptoms. Because entrenched beliefs don’t yield to brand messaging, credibility had to come from peers — we recruited rare sickle cell disease (SCD) specialists, emergency medicine opinion leaders, and patient advocacy voices, and built the “SCDTruths” video series and educational platform around them.

My role was both directive and hands-on: I concepted and led the integrated campaign, co-art directed and co-designed the platform, print advertisements, point-of-care materials, and congress exhibit, and led a cross-functional team of copy, medical direction, medical writing, and visual design. When Pfizer restructured mid-project, I built the ROI and strategic-value presentations that kept the program funded.

The Work

Campaign identity:
"What’s your Sickle Cell Disease truth?”

The peer-testimony framework that carried the campaign

Black and white portrait of Dr. Foyekemi Ikyator, wearing glasses, with a red overlay on the right side containing a quote about complications in SCD.

Platform on laptop/mobile

Sickle Cell Disease Truths (SCDTruths) educational platform, co-art directed and co-designed

A digital infographic about Vaso-occlusive crisis, showing human body diagram, blood cell images, and information on symptoms, diagnosis, and complications.

Video stills

SCD specialist and KOL testimony addressing misconceptions directly

A computer screen displaying a healthcare website titled 'Sickle Cell TRUTHS' and a smartphone showing the same website. The website features a video preview and information about sickle cell disease with a woman in a white coat on the right side of the monitor.
A woman with short, styled hair, wearing a black turtleneck sweater, smiling with earrings and a nose ring, in front of a wooden background.

Outcome

Clinical trial results ended the program before launch. Pfizer retained the complete campaign strategy and creative assets for future use.

One Learning

The insight phase, not the creative phase, determined this campaign. Discovering that the real barrier was unconscious bias — not information scarcity — changed who needed to speak and what they needed to say. It’s the discipline I bring to every regulated-audience campaign: diagnose before designing.

Planning a launch, rebrand, or congress season?