Diurnal: Modified-Release Hydrocortisone Therapy Product Awareness Campaign

Overview

Development of a product awareness campaign for the 2024 European launch of a modified-release hydrocortisone therapy. The campaign refreshed the brand identity and messaging, creating a clear, emotive platform focused on cortisol delivery and circadian rhythm, and supporting rollout across multiple European markets and channels.

The Challenge

The brand needed to refocus communications on how the therapy delivers cortisol in line with the body’s natural rhythm, while standing out in a competitive endocrine market.

Following a change in ownership and shifting priorities, the campaign had to feel both familiar and renewed, resonate with healthcare professionals and patients, and translate clearly across congress environments, digital channels and local European markets. Accessibility and inclusivity were also key considerations, particularly for digital assets.

Conclusion & Results

The Approach

Building on more than seven years’ experience working with the brand, we combined deep audience insight with fresh strategic thinking. We reviewed competitor activity, explored visual trends, and consulted with stakeholders, potential customers and key opinion leaders to ensure the campaign aligned with leadership expectations while clearly differentiating in market.

Our studio developed 15 initial creative concepts, contributed by multiple creatives to encourage breadth of thinking. These were refined into eight fully developed routes, each supported by clear rationales, messaging frameworks and visual mock-ups. Creative exploration centred on metaphors linked to rhythm, protection and continuity, helping translate clinical benefit into something intuitive and memorable.

Workshops and iterative feedback sessions with the brand team and key account managers helped narrow the creative routes to two leading concepts. The chosen direction, Lighthouse, used a split day-and-night image to symbolise protection and continuous cortisol delivery. The strapline “All day long, all night long” became the campaign’s central message, balancing emotional impact with clinical accuracy.

Once approved, the campaign was adapted across channels and markets, with careful attention to inclusive, jargon-free language and accessibility best practice.

Key deliverables included:

Campaign concept and strategic proposition
Refreshed brand identity and visual direction
Strapline and messaging framework
Hero campaign imagery and visual system
Congress visuals and exhibition booth graphics
Sales aids and digital advertising assets
Social media content
Multi-market adaptations for the UK, Germany and Italy
Accessibility-optimised digital assets

The Impact

The Lighthouse campaign was adopted as the flagship creative across European markets and described internally as striking, emotive and strongly aligned with the clinical story.

The hero imagery provided a consistent, recognisable presence across congresses, sales materials and digital channels, strengthening brand recall and trust in endocrine care. The successful rollout across three markets demonstrated the campaign’s scalability and long-term value as a flexible platform for future communications.