Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), a group of progressive, rare blood cancers in which the bone marrow functions abnormally, affect approximately 200,000 Americans. They can strike anyone at any age, but are more common in older adults who often face a long and frustrating journey to diagnosis because their symptoms are overlooked or associated with aging.
Because information and support resources for MPNs, unfortunately, can be as rare as these diseases, Incyte–which markets an approved treatment for two types of MPNs–sought to raise awareness of MPNs and their effect on patients’ lives and to engage the MPN patient community to play a more active role in their disease management.
As part of the Rare Reflections: MPNs Unmasked program, an in-person gallery event was originally planned to debut the portraits. But when the pandemic hit, we pivoted our approach and developed a virtual gallery.
Incyte and W2O partnered with J.G. Jones, a renowned comic book artist who was diagnosed with an MPN over a decade ago, to drive disease awareness by capturing the experiences of those impacted by MPNs – patients and caregivers alike – through Rare Reflections: MPNs Unmasked. The campaign features a series of portraits illustrated by Jones, who uses graphic art to reveal the powerful stories of individuals impacted by MPNs.
As part of the Rare Reflections: MPNs Unmasked program, an in-person gallery event was originally planned to debut the portraits. But when the pandemic hit, we pivoted our approach and developed a virtual gallery.
Campaign Objectives
Incyte and W2O partnered with J.G. Jones, a renowned comic book artist who was diagnosed with an MPN over a decade ago, to drive disease awareness by capturing the experiences of those impacted by MPNs – patients and caregivers alike – through Rare Reflections: MPNs Unmasked. The campaign, which launched on Rare Disease Day 2020, features a series of portraits illustrated by Jones, who uses graphic art to reveal the powerful stories of individuals impacted by MPNs.
As part of the Rare Reflections: MPNs Unmasked program, an in-person gallery event was originally planned to debut the portraits. But when the pandemic hit, we pivoted our approach and developed a Virtual Gallery.
The Rare Reflections: MPNs Unmasked Virtual Gallery is a fully interactive online experience that showcases the powerful and personal stories of people impacted by MPNs. The gallery includes J.G. Jones’ paintings, patient stories, video content, and audio clips from J.G. about his inspiration behind each painting.
In the Virtual Gallery, visitors can view the illustrations up close, read the personal stories of those impacted by MPNs, listen to J.G. Jones describe his inspiration behind each illustration, and watch two short documentaries featured within the gallery.
The Virtual Gallery offers a place for reflection and community to further raise awareness and education about MPNs.
Execution & Tactics
The Virtual Gallery features 8 illustrations created by Jones to showcase the unique patient journeys of each individual and two documentary videos from the Rare Reflections program. Each illustration is accompanied by a written story and audio clips of Jones’ inspiration behind each portrait.
To debut the Virtual Gallery, we held a virtual event on October 28, 2020.
Following the launch event, we amplified the reach of the Rare Reflections Virtual Gallery with social media content for Voices of MPN social channels, J.G. Jones’ personal channels and Incyte’s social channels.
Since the launch of the gallery, there have been 3,066 virtual gallery pageviews from 2,441 unique users, and the average time on this page is strong, at 01:31 minutes. Of note, traffic peaks were observed on December 11 (302 page views) and December 18 (134 page views).
