• by Les Luchter , October 10, 2023

Countering the aspirational lifestyle commercials of the two category giants -- Abbott’s Freestyle Libre and Dexcom’s G6 -- Ascensia Diabetes Care ‘s Eversense E3 is branding itself as “The CGM for Real Life” in its first TV campaign. 

CGMs, or continuous glucose monitors, are the hottest things in the diabetes marketplace, with global sales expected to reach $2 billion by 2028, Transparency Market Research reported on Monday.

The Eversense E3 has the longest life (six months) of any CGM, according to Ascensia, which markets the device under a partnership with its manufacturer Senseonics Holdings.

That longevity is stressed in the new campaign, which goes after competitors without naming names. Eversense E3 entered the market in April 2022.

“I lose sleep over the on-again, off-again relationship that we have,” a woman says to her mirror image in one :30 spot. As the man in her life looks on confused, she declares, “It’s like every week or two, we have to start over.” Next, she’s telling her doctor, “I deserve something more long-term.” A voiceover then says, “If your relationship with your current CGM has run its course, switch to Eversense,"

That ad and another spot are part of a campaign intended to drive awareness and interest while differentiating Eversense E3 from competitors, Ascensia President Rob Schumm told the Gilmartin Group Emerging Growth Showcase last month.

Schumm said that, while advertising from other category players has “really raised the awareness ss of continuous glucose monitors overall” and driven consumer demand, they’ve been selling “an effortless aspirational lifestyle” through a message that managing diabetes is going  to be “magically easy and simple.” But that “isn’t really the case. Between a third and two-thirds of people who are using CGMs have some degree of dissatisfaction or experience daily frustrations.”

At the same Gilmartin Group event, Char Roseblad, chief client officer of Ascensia’s agency Space150, noted that Abbott and Dexcom “spent over $130 million [on advertising] over the last two years,” admitting that “Eversense cannot compete with the two behemoths that dominate this category in spend alone.”  

Instead, she said, the brand has adopted a “challenger mindset” to “outsmart the competition” rather than outspend them.

The target audience? “Reassurance seekers,” Roseblad said, who represent 30% of the diabetes population [which is a hefty 37 million Americans]. “They are proactive and very motivated when it comes to managing their diabetes,” she explained. “They have goals and aspirations in life and they don’t want their diabetes to hold them back, let alone their CGM.  They’re also smart enough to see through some of the smoke and mirrors of this aspirational, easy lifestyle that’s being perpetuated. They know that’s not representative of the reality they’re going through every day.”

The broadcast TV campaign, which Roseblad called a “strategic media test” to grow awareness and drive lead volume, will take place in five markets -- Detroit, Austin, Memphis, Nashville and San Antonio.

Upcoming placements include game four of the World Series in San Antonio (both Texas-based MLB teams are still alive in the playoffs), a Tennessee Titans NFL game in Memphis and Nashville, a Detroit Lions game in Detroit, and a Texas Longhorns college game in San Antonio

Eversense will also be in much of the country through connected TV, both on streaming platforms and smart devices, Roseblad said. Specific services include Peacock, Hulu, Disney+, YouTube and Amazon Prime Video.

The campaign, which will run at least until year’s end, is also expanding in media categories that Eversense had already been using, Roseblad said, such as adding Bing to Google in paid search, and TikTok (“that is where our audience lives and consumes media”) to Meta platforms in paid social. Also new for the brand is advertising on YouTube and LinkedIn.

As for campaign metrics, “we’ll be measuring workable leads as our #1 KPI,” Roseblad said, with other inputs including cost per session and website conversion rates

Overall, she added, “a win would look like us reaching more than 50% of the U.S. with a significant number of impressions.”

Check out this story for more news on continuous glucose monitors.