I’ve been in digital marketing for almost two decades now. I’ve worked with startups, multi-million-dollar brands, and more recently, individuals trying to build personal brands. But let me tell you something you won’t often hear: not every campaign will do as great as you planned. You might have put all the necessary things for its success but….
You might do everything “right.” You might tick every box, follow every best practice, put in all the hours.
And still… it might fall flat.
This is a story about one of those.
The Setup: A Campaign With All the "Right" Ingredients
It was Q2 of 2023. We launched a campaign for one of our clients in the health tech space. A medical diagnostics brand launching a new at-home test kit for women.
They came to us for full-stack creative support:
- An animated Short-form explainer video
- A content rollout plan across social media.
- Platform-specific versions for Instagram, Facebook, YouTube — and even a TV spot (though we didn’t handle the TV campaign)
- A landing page optimized for conversions
- A modest paid ad push on Meta platforms
We’d gotten to understand the product. The animations were clean, modern, and easy to follow, the client loved it! The brand voice was warm and reassuring. Segmented our audience, set our KPIs
Everything felt right literally. On paper, it checked all the boxes.
But once the campaign went live… the response was lukewarm at best.
Open rates were decent, but click-throughs were lower than usual.
On social media, the content got views, but barely any engagements
It didn’t convert the way we’d seen in past campaigns.
What Went Wrong? The Post-Mortem
After a few days of watching the numbers stall, we hit pause and it was time to re evaluate. we realized that We Educated, But We Didn’t Empathize.
Our explainer video broke down the science well, but it didn’t reflect the emotional journey of the target audience. Women dealing with the issues we were trying to address didn’t just need clean facts — they needed to feel seen.
We should have started with empathy before explanation.
Because in this space, connection is everything.
We Needed Real Faces Alongside the Animation
We led with animation — which was clear, professional, and visually engaging. But in a medical space where emotions run deep, visuals alone weren’t enough.People wanted to see someone like them. A real face. A real voice.
We realized: it wasn’t about choosing between animation and human stories. It was about balancing both.
We used animation to clarify and real people to connect. One explains the product and the other connects emotionally with customers
Lastly, we asked people to “Buy Now” before they even knew if they had a problem. People were still in research mode. We didn’t give them space to process if they actually felt that way or if they were the target audience. So the user journey has to match their emotional journey.
What We Did Differently
We regrouped and reworked key pieces of the campaign:
- We repurposed the animation as part of a lead nurturing sequence, instead of expecting cold viewers to convert immediately.
- We shot a short docu-style video featuring a real customer talking about her health journey, the symptoms she felt and how the test gave her clarity — before infusing the animated part.
- We ran a soft, quiz-based lead magnet to help visitors “find out if this test is right for them,” which built trust and increased email opt-ins by 42%.
From there, things started to shift.
We saw more comments. DM inquiries.
And conversions picked up with deeper engagement and better-qualified leads.
The Bigger Lesson
We delivered strong work. But what that campaign taught us is this:
Even the best content can miss the mark if it doesn’t align emotionally and mentally with your audience.
Now, we ask harder questions at the start:
- Where is your customer before they find you?
- What’s keeping them from acting?
- What do they need to feel, not just understand?
That’s made our strategy sharper.
And our results? Stronger.
If you’re planning a campaign — especially in a sensitive space like healthcare, wellness, or diagnostics — make sure you’re not just telling people what your product does.
Tell them you understand what they’re going through.
Then show them the way forward.
