• by Les Luchter , Yesterday

Insulet has launched a humorous paid social campaign for its wearable Omnipod 5 insulin delivery system -- and teamed with Marvel for a stigma-busting comic book starring a teen heroine with diabetes.

“Nobody likes a prick,” begins a 3-minute video for Omnipod 5, described as the only tubeless automated system for insulin delivery.

The content, the Raindrop agency’s first for the brand, represents a “light-hearted and humorous approach to product education” -- a strategy that's “a first within the diabetes industry,” the agency’s CEO Jacques Spitzer tells Marketing Daily.

The campaign, uses “humor to disarm” and “education to empower,” Lucas Escobar, Insulet’s director, U.S. consumer marketing, said in a statement, “reflecting the real, everyday challenges of life with diabetes while showcasing how Omnipod 5 can help make diabetes a smaller part of life.”

Omnipod 5, on the market since 2022, connects to a compatible CGM (continuous glucose monitor) from such device marketers as Dexcom and Abbott (Freestyle Libre). It’s usable not only by type 1 diabetes patients, but by type 2 patients who take insulin.

The campaign’s “bullseye target,” per Spitzer: people “who wear a CGM and do multiple daily injections of insulin.” 

Launched last week, the campaign is centered on YouTube and Meta platforms, and also includes :60, :30, and :15 cutdowns of the hero video. Wheelhouse DMG handled the media buy.

Unveiled June 11, Insulet’s comic book collaboration with Marvel is titled “Dyasonic: Sound of Strength.” In it, a high school girl living with type 1 diabetes and self-doubt transforms into the title superhero after she starts sporting an Omnipod 5. She is then able to battle D’Spayre, “a villain who feeds on fear, doubt, and the negative emotions that may come along with diabetes.”

Insulet says the “driving force” behind the comic book was to build “empathy, understanding and connection” through storytelling.

Printed copies of “Dyasonic” will be distributed through doctors’ offices and in-person diabetes events and summits, Insulet tells Marketing Daily, with an e-comic version available at Omnipod.com/Marvel.

The comic book’s launch is being supported with an omnichannel campaign directed at both consumers and healthcare providers, the company says.

Insulet has also created Dyasonic GIFs and stickers, which it’s requesting be used in social media, chat platforms, SMS “and beyond.” For every Instagram post that includes a GIF or sticker, along with tags to the nonprofit Children with Diabetes, Insulet pledges to donate $1 (up to a total of $25,000).

The comic book and the comical social media campaign launch as Omnipod 5 is on a roll, helped along by consumer marketing.