Orthospe | 148 did it

A viral campaign for orthodontics

Our brief was to create a social media campaign and a website to promote the orthodontist profession, show that it has modernised and combat preconceptions. The SFSO (French Union of Orthodontic Specialists) had created a new label, “Orthospé”, to distinguish between specialist orthodontists entitled to the label and general dentists who practice orthodontics. We were appointed by the agency LJ Communication to create a campaign to raise public awareness of the label – in other words, to show that if you call on the right specialist, having braces doesn’t need to be a painful experience!

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#CONSEIL
#SOCIAL MEDIA
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The creation of a whole cartoon universe

For our art department, the key element of this campaign was the creation of characters and a video corresponding to the story of each of them: Theo, 10, who becomes the school superhero; Sarah, 16, who dreams of looking like her favourite stars; Maxime, the 32-year-old salesman who worries what his colleagues will think of his dental appliance; and finally, Dr Farnier, the specialist orthodontist who advises them and tailors their treatment accordingly. This educational storytelling allowed us to playfully highlight the supporting role played by the orthodontist in restoring his patients’ confidence.

Agence 148 provided useful advice and support, helping the client see how the campaign would work
Inès Garnier, project manager at LJ Communication

Close collaboration between creatives and developers

The characters and their universe were created entirely on the drawing board. And we opted for the traditional method of cartoon production involving a script and models. For the animation, we worked with a specialist, the Pierre Pierre studio. And for the sound, with Polenprod Music, which created the sound effects and bespoke music for our videos from scratch.

What we liked most was the quality of the videos and the creative content proposed by Agence 148
Inès, project manager at LJ Communication

We adopted an efficient process to optimise the creation and graphic research phase. Our four developers responsible for this project were involved with the models from a very early stage, to provide feedback and indicate what was technically possible – or not – and therefore help the creatives to define priorities.

A benchmark site for Agence 148 in terms of design and animation

The other major part of the campaign was the creation of a dual-purpose website. Firstly, it needed to be a tool for disseminating the communication campaign. Secondly, it needed to become the official site of the “Orthospé” label, with explanatory pages, advice and a directory, aimed both at individuals wanting to learn about orthodontics and professionals looking for information about the label.

We managed to produce a lot of animation without it being too costly in terms of performance
Tai, developer at Agence 148

Technically, we developed the website using Word Press. The challenge was to keep the playful universe of Theo, Sarah, Maxime and Dr Farnier, and so create a site with lots of animation. We opted for big sliders on the home page. The characters appear as animated gifs, with moving hands and blinking eyes. The cursor also changes depending on what you hover over – when launching a video for example, it changes to the Play icon.

A two-month media plan

The campaign launch was timed to coincide with the “Orthodontics Days” – a crucial four-day window that needed to be seized. We launched the website and bought visibility on Google via Google Ads to ensure the site appeared first when searches included certain keywords. A budget was also allocated for pre-roll ads on Youtube to play extracts from our videos.

The team is available, attentive, organised and reliable
Inès, project manager at LJ Communication

Finally, we created an Instagram account for each of our characters, enabling them to tell their stories and convey messages from orthodontics professionals. We took on the management of accounts and when they were launched we used Instagram Ads and bought sponsored posts for them to appear as a feed or a story.