Background

Migraine is a complex neurological disease. For patients, each experiences migraine differently and no two attacks are the same. This variability means every patient is a unique puzzle in need of tailored solutions.

Unfortunately for physicians, prescription acute treatment options are limited for the thousands and thousands of patients who don’t respond to standard of care. The many questions of why and how to address it leave physicians with few answers. There’s not much more to offer them besides dosing adjustments, trigger avoidance education and tracking, and best practice on product use. Frustrated patients can lose faith in their physicians and leave the healthcare system altogether, relying instead on coping mechanisms and over-the-counter medication to treat their attacks.

And for the scientific community, understanding of the pathophysiology of migraine is always evolving, with still infinite more questions than answers.

Idea

The idea of a puzzle taps into human nature of wanting to figure out problems. This instinct tends to be more sharply honed in healthcare professionals, many of whom gravitated to the profession because of a desire to help people figure out how to solve their medical problems.

The image of a puzzle quickly and simply conveys the idea of problem-solving. Explicitly connecting it to the theme of “complexity” resonates with the challenges physicians face understanding and treating migraine.

To make the idea compelling and trigger immediate disease state recognition, we used a puzzle to create the face of migraine, visually demonstrating to physicians the pain and frustration of patients who are not receiving adequate care. 

Execution

For Puzzle Head to be an effective communication, we had to find the right balance between realistic patient portrayal combined with a more surreal visual representation of the puzzle. Pushed too far either way and we risked having confusing and potentially horrific imagery that alienated physicians instead of engaging them.

Casting focus was on people with distinct facial features that would still stand out once their faces was rearranged in the individual puzzle pieces. We used their portraits to create illustrations that helped determine the appropriate arrangement of the pieces.

From there we photographed the talent with a cube over their faces and combined with photogrammetry (3D scanning), CGI, and post production to bring Puzzle Head to life.

All other graphic elements of the campaign, from typography to color composition, were designed to reflect the puzzle idea.