NASS – The National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society are the only UK charity supporting people with axial SpA specifically. Axial SpA is a form of inflammatory arthritis that most commonly affects the spine. It is not rare and affects an estimated 1 in 200 of the adult population in the UK. (approximately 220,000*) The current time to diagnosis of axial SpA in the UK averages approximately 8.5 years from symptom onset.
NASS research released in June 2021 found:
-
91%
have never heard of axial SpA.
-
80%
could not identify the symptoms of axial SpA.
-
73%
did not know that the disease starts when people are young.

The Objective
The Objective
Raise awareness of axial SpA as a condition targeting a younger audience of 18–40-year-olds in Northern Ireland with persistent lower back pain to motivate them to consider whether they have the condition. We wanted to encourage them to go online to actonaxialspa.com and complete the online symptom checker.

The Creative
The Creative
With optimism often being the first victim of Axial SpA, we developed the concept of “Broken Dreams”. Our young target audience all have plans, dreams, and aspirations for their lives, which low back pain is stopping them from making a reality. Our goal is to deeply connect with this audience by highlighting how back pain obstructs their dreams while also providing a message of hope and empowerment.
To visually convey the “Broken Dreams” concept, we utilised aspirational videos and imagery that depict the dreams and ambitions of our target audience. These visuals are then artistically crumpled or cracked, depending on the platform, to symbolise the impact of back pain. This execution serves a dual purpose: it visually represents the physical manifestation of back pain and the contorted movements people use to alleviate discomfort, and it metaphorically illustrates the profound and disruptive effect back pain has on daily life.
The visuals are paired with a direct headline style that poses questions designed to resonate with our audience’s experiences. Questions like “Low back pain crushing your life?” directly address their struggles and prompt them to take action. The call to action, “Take back control,” encourages our audience to use the symptom checker, positioning it as a first step towards reclaiming their dreams and aspirations.
By combining evocative imagery with impactful messaging, the “Broken Dreams” campaign aims to engage and motivate young individuals to address their low back pain, helping them to restore their optimism and pursue their ambitions.
The Media Strategy
The Media Strategy
6-week highly targeted campaign to the 109,000, 18–40-year-olds living in Belfast. We used TGI to identify the top channels for the target audience to deliver a campaign across their high frequency media touchpoints.
Outdoor
Geotargeted OOH to South and East Belfast. We used a combination of high impact billboards, Adshel Live and shopping centre digital screens. We partnered with leading OOH contractor Clear Channel, whose digital plant enabled us to creatively exploit their screens. We handpicked locations adjacent to the commuter hubs of Lanyon and Great Victoria Street stations and proximity to the clinic location.
Radio
TGI identified that 51% of our 18-40 audience tune into Cool FM every week. (NI TGI 2023) With 490,000 weekly listeners and an average Facebook monthly reach of over 1.5 million, Bauer station Cool FM was the perfect radio and social partner. We ran an airtime campaign which targeted the commuter peaks and complemented with cost-effective airtime at night and the weekends when our audience were out socialising.
To enable us to give more detail on the condition and educate our audience we ran two native content articles on Cool’s website and drove reads through social posts to their million plus following across Facebook and Instagram.
Social Media
70% of our target audience use Facebook regularly and 60%, Instagram. (Source: NI TGI 2023). We delivered hero creative reinforcing our OOH but expanded our messaging with a suite of awareness building and direct response formats. We applied granular targeting of those with an interest in health and wellbeing and contact sports which lead to back pain.

The Results
- 330+ Symptom Checker completions
- 9,000+ new visits to the NASS website
- 3,350+ new unique users to the NASS website
- 81% of 18–40yo in Belfast reached on Outdoor
- 565,000+ adults in NI reached on Radio
- 2,390+ people read articles on the Cool FM website
- 995,000+ ads served on Social
- 228,000+ people engaged with ads on Social