• by Les Luchter , October 28, 2024

In a Breztri commercial that launched a year ago, a man using the AstraZeneca COPD inhaler was able to participate in hiking and other outdoor activities via an RV road trip.

In this year’s spot, a woman using the inhaler gets to participate in a full range of recreational and sightseeing activities during a cruise vacation.

Both spots feature much of the same language about Breztri’s triple-action therapy -- better breathing, symptom improvement, and reduction of flare-ups – as well as “All Right Now,” a 1970 song by Free, which starts playing as each spot’s protagonist relates that “things changed” within five minutes after they began using the medication.

But cruises proved more aspirational and inspiring to COPD patients than roughing it in the wild, per AstraZeneca executive director marketing Brenda McCall.

“In testing and research, this campaign outperformed the previous campaign,” McCall explains to Marketing Daily. “The other spot was still really high up, but we able to build off of that existing campaign [with] some subtle insights.”

“Something that a lot of COPD patients aspire to do is to go out,” she says,” to do something like a cruise, a vacation, if they’re feeling better.”

Breztri replaced its former male protagonist with a female one, McCall adds, “because COPD affects both men and women pretty equally, so it was important for us to take a refresh.”

The brand’s target customers themselves have not changed, though.

They remain the nation’s COPD patients, who McCall says are typically diagnosed between 40 and 60 years old.

To reach them, the Breztri spot has begun an expected year-end cruise on such outlets as NFL games and NASCAR races, both of which McCall says over-index with COPD patients. “They also really like some of the syndicated shows,” she adds.

The cruising theme carries over into other campaign elements, which include digital streaming and digital “omnichannels.”

While 12 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COPD, McCall notes “many millions more, unfortunately, are not.” And, of the 12 million diagnosed, “only about half are seeking treatment with a doctor.”

Thus, the “ask your doctor about Breztri for COPD” call-to-action at the end of the commercials is “really important,” according to Breztri. “We’re driving awareness and understanding that COPD flareups, which is a worsening of symptoms, cause permanent damage, and there’s more that they can do.”

COPD is also the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. from a chronic disease,” McCall notes

Breztri has emphasized education about the disease since launching during the pandemic in 2020, she says.

Another drug, GSK’s Trelegy, also combines three different medications, but they’re totally different ones.