Eczema Isn't Always Red
Date
2024–2026
Service
Social AOR
The Challenge
It was July 2023. Eli Lilly was ready to launch Ebglyss into a market already crowded with eczema treatments. We pitched for Social AOR and won—because we started where patients actually were: on the feed.
The Insight
Most people don't know eczema isn't always red. On darker skin tones, it often appears purple, brown, or ash gray—making it incredibly easy to misdiagnose. But doctors on social do. Dermatologists were already saying it on TikTok, and patients were watching. We brought doctor influencers into the campaign to lend that same credibility in formats that felt native, not sponsored. That single medical truth became the foundation for everything. We called it Is / Isn't—a creative framework built from social listening, not a brand brief. Not a message pushed at an audience, but a conversation they were already having.
For the younger patients driving that conversation, managing a prescription looks a lot like buying skincare. Discovery starts on a feed, not a search engine. That's why we proposed Lilly's first-ever UGC-style, social-first campaign—while the competition was still cutting down 30-second TV spots to fit a phone screen.
The Solution
We didn't just post on social—we spoke its language. Family dances, GRWMs, beauty fridge tours, and "real talk" confessionals. Each format gave prescription medicine a container that felt familiar, not clinical.
Lines like "Eczema relief doesn't always come in a jar" and "Isn't it time for a change?" weren't ad copy—they were the kind of thing you'd caption your own post. This lo-fi aesthetic was a shock for a big pharma client, but people are hyper-attuned to other humans. You have to hook them in the first three seconds, make them feel something, and look like you belong in their feed.
The Scale
After the 2024 launch on FB, IG, and TikTok, we scaled to 200 videos across Snapchat, Pinterest, and YouTube Shorts. We also extended into Olympic partnerships—bringing the brand into the world's biggest cultural stage in both 2024 and 2026. That kind of volume is unheard of in pharma. We pulled it off by operating like a creator house—concepting, filming, and producing in-house, with AI workflows to solve for scale without losing the human feel that made it work.
The Result
Our best-performing assets led with Is / Isn't.