A pinata, a cat and a boxer - The Usual Sorespects - bring to life the season's uncomfortable sore throat symptoms to drive awareness and product consideration. Running across social, display, out-of-home and print in the UK the striking work breaks away from category norms to reach more consumers.
The Usual Sorespects
Difflam calls on stunning craft to personify sore throat symptoms
Client
- Difflam
Office
- London
Winter is a busy period for those brands trying to reach the cold and flu market. So to stand out from the crowd you need a few things to win. Brutal simplicity, a level of craft your audience can’t help but appreciate, and bucketloads of warmth and charm.
Christopher Joyce
Creative Director
Difflam is a strong over-the-counter product, but whilst powerful it also provides relief to a range of common sore throat symptoms, from raw inflammation and painful throbbing to the scratchy throat we all know when we’re coming down with something. However, Difflam isn’t a household name, and people rarely knew what it treated. At best it was thought of as a serious treatment for the most severe throat conditions. So, we had to raise awareness of the Difflam name during the winter cold and flu season.
People will put up with a whole range of annoying symptoms from dry, scratchy throats and coughs to pain while talking before taking the right action. We not only wanted to educate consumers of Difflam’s ability to be used as a treatment for a range of sore throat issues but do so in such a way that truly stood out from the category norms to drive brand love and make it approachable.
We created a set of light-hearted characters that personified the most common sore throat symptoms. And we did it with bucketloads of charm, with character design that was intentionally tangible, a beautifully hand-crafted clay and 3D illustration, evoking the physical feelings of the sore throat symptoms they represented. This beautiful and simple approach helped warm up a usually frosty and grey time of year and positioned the product as able to treat less serious sore throat issues.
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Awards
EPICA Awards 2023
Illustration
Gold
Kinsale Sharks 2023
Outdoor Craft: Illustration
Silver
Kinsale Sharks 2023
Design: Poster Design
Silver
Press
Ad of the Day: beautifully crafted characters portray throat niggles in Difflam’s OOH push
The Drum
Charming Throat Relief Ads Perfectly Sum Up Soreness Without Giving The IckDesign Taxi
Difflam throat spray launches craft-focused campaignCreative Review
VML Creates "Usual Sorespects" Campaign For DifflamCreative Salon
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