GSK: The Week of Migraine

Raising the awareness and understanding of migraine at work

CHALLENGE:
Still a taboo in Belgium, migraine is one of the most downplayed diseases in Belgium. This is particularly true at work, where 30% of migraine patients still hide their disease from their colleagues and employers. GSK wanted to change that …

CAMPAIGN:
Together, companies and work associations, patient organizations, two pharmacist organizations and healthcare professionals supported the launch of “Migraine Week”. A stakeholder round table discussing migraine at work kicked off the campaign. An ‘experience’ bus visited companies and major cities and gave people the opportunity to understand and experience what a migraine attack feels like.

To further encourage a dialogue on the subject, informative and educational materials were distributed in pharmacies, as they can be a first point of contact for patients who are wondering if they suffer from migraine or another form of headache.

IMPACT:
6 major companies in Belgium actively endorsed the campaign and 33,000 people felt what migraine was like via the ‘experience’ bus.
National TV and radio stations, the main newspapers and key specialized press in Belgium covered the week and up to 80 media clippings (value of €735.000) were generated.

High-quality coverage was generated as the 15 journalists present at the round table event conducted 95 interviews with the participants. 91% of the stories mentioned the essential message that “migraine was taboo at work”, and 60% mentioned how pharmacists could offer advice, while 50% of the stories referred to the migraine ‘experience’ bus.
There were 791 views of the patient video testimonials (organic) on YouTube.