Welcoming Emgality to Canada with a Brand New Facelift

Eli Lilly is a pharmaceutical company based in Toronto, Canada, but is distributed worldwide. Emgality, one of Eli Lilly’s migraine medications, was finally being distributed in Canada, after being approved by the FDA in 2018. Due to regulations in the Canadian pharmaceutical market, however, Emgality needed a new face and campaign geared towards their Canadian users, while still adhering to the Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board (PAAB).

The approved concept was of a woman named Jessica, holding balloons raised to the sky on the beach while both feet remained in the sand. This idea illustrated the relief that Emgality can give for migraines, but not the certainty that it will eliminate them. Once the talent had been chosen and photographed, I was tasked with creating the scene of Jessica on the beach holding the balloons.

Some of the problems we encountered were finding the right colours to match as closely to the brand guidelines as possible for the photoshoot, and editing them in post-production. We also found that the balloons didn’t end up as “full” as we had hoped, so I had to create most of the balloons myself.

The image of Jessica became the main branded image for Emgality in Canada, being used across various digital and print platforms.