Drum’s ADHD campaign selected as the Pharmaceutical Information Act of the Year award winner

The Pharmaceutical Information Act of the Year award is awarded to a communication or marketing act or campaign that raises consumer awareness of an important and topical health issue.

The communications agency Drum has won the Pharmaceutical Information Act of the Year 2021 award together with the pharmaceutical company Takeda. The award was awarded to the Adult ADHD Symptom Awareness Campaign Miltä ADHD tuntuu? (How does ADHD feel like?) According to the jury, the campaign successfully described a world unknown to many people.

The communications agency Drum and Takeda’s campaign to raise awareness of ADHD symptoms in adults was selected as the Pharmaceutical Information Act of the Year 2021. The award is awarded to a communication or marketing act or campaign that raises the consumers’ awareness of some important and topical health issue.

The jury justified its decision, for example, by the fact that the campaign successfully presented a world widely unknown to the public.

“The jury thought that the winner campaign was a great pharmaceutical information act. The campaign was a well-structured and descriptive campaign about a subject that is difficult to understand for many people and that is often only known as a combination of letters. The campaign raised the viewers’ awareness of ADHD and presented a world unknown to the public by utilising new ways of health informing and appealing to peoples’ emotions. The campaign was skilfully constructed and the results were excellent,” says the chairperson of the jury Riikka-Maria Lemminki in the jury’s statement.

The objective of the campaign was to raise awareness of the common yet poorly known ADHD in adults. This objective was clearly reached.

“The campaign has clearly increased the awareness and recognition of ADHD symptoms in adults. We have received praise from the experiential ADHD operators, the Finnish Association for ADHD and healthcare professionals for providing modern, digital and experiential health information. Seamless cooperation between the communications agency, the patients’ organisation, experiential operators, the experts as well as with the people of Takeda was a prerequisite for the campaign’s success. The campaign provides a multi-sensory opportunity to experience what ADHD can feel like. From our point of view, this is unique compared to other health informing campaigns,” says Laura Aulanko, Business Unit Director at Takeda.

The Pharmaceutical Information Act of the Year is an annual recognition awarded by Pharma Industry Finland, and the winner is selected by an independent jury. One of the award’s criteria is that the campaign has utilised various media in the pharmaceutical marketing in accordance with the Ethical Guidelines, which are the basis for self-regulation in the pharmaceutical industry. The awarded campaigns have also often been successful in stimulating social discussion.