Medelli – The fails

According to a study carried out in September 2015 and April 2016 by the IPSOS Institute, two in three French people feel the health information on the web makes them anxious while 78% of respondents would have more faith in information on a website specialising in health issues and approved by one or more doctors.

In 2016, the MSD laboratory made a major change by launching a new benchmark for sourcing health information online. Medelli is the first consumer website offering health advice approved and recommended by doctors. The website provides more than 1,500 health advice sheets and enables web users to make an appointment online with a doctor nearby.

Our challenge was to make the general public aware of this new service and get them into the habit of automatically going online to “ask Medelli”. We came up with the Fails campaign.

The concept behind the campaign is to illustrate daily health concerns through a series of humorous films using real amateur video footage.

To do so, we partnered with FailArmy, the leading YouTube channel in ‘fail’ videos with more than 11 million subscribers and more than 3 billion views of its videos. We took five of their best amateur videos and produced five funny online mini-films showing everyday health concerns such as a stiff neck, sight problems, migraines, and issues around food.

These web films – broadcast as pre-rolls on YouTube and sponsored posts on Facebook – establish Medelli as the go-to source of information for all health concerns.

The campaign is optimised in real time through RTB and is available in various formats and media online, showcasing videos and campaigns caricaturing everyday health concerns.

The Fails campaign has carved out a genuine digital identity for Medelli with advertising that doesn’t look like advertising and positive responses from the audience.
The result: webfilms with more than four million views on Facebook, and over one million visits to medelli.fr just four months since its launch.