Increased awareness for diabetes

The primary goal of the 24/7 Diabetes campaign is to foster greater understanding of the daily challenges faced by people with diabetes. To achieve this, we focused on knowledge-sharing and storytelling, giving the spotlight to those who know best: people living with diabetes.

We designed a phased, strategic approach with a campaign peak during November, which marks World Diabetes Month. The campaign demonstrates how diabetes requires constant attention — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Collaboration at the Core

A campaign of this magnitude requires collaboration. To ensure credibility and impact, we partnered with Diabetes+ and Diabetesvereniging Nederland (DVN). This partnership was unprecedented in the Netherlands, highlighting the importance of raising awareness about an often-overlooked condition. We also involved healthcare professionals and experienced ambassadors, making this a campaign by and for people with diabetes.

The partners’ contribution gave us input for the campaign. Our messaging focused on the continuous attention that diabetes demands. We emphasized the many daily decisions and factors that people with diabetes must consider to manage their health. To increase impact, we ensured the campaign had a human face, sharing real stories and experiences across owned, earned, and paid channels.

Phase 1: Shaping the campaign 

We started by creating a physical, interactive experience to help people understand the mental load of living with diabetes.

What Did We Do?

• Collaborated with Spinner & Langkous to develop a physical game-like experience featuring a nervous spiral challenge. Participants had to navigate a spiral without touching it, all while facing distractions and high-pressure situations — simulating the constant focus required to manage diabetes.
• Based the experience on real stories from people with diabetes and tested it extensively with them.
• Developed a recognizable campaign style and logo under the 24/7 Diabetes brand.
• Selected five ambassadors to be the faces of the campaign.
• Created bold, eye-catching visuals with confrontational messages, like “Long will they inject”, to capture attention and convey the reality of diabetes.
• Built a dedicated website: www.24-7diabetes.nl, featuring interviews, images, and information about diabetes and the campaign.
• Developed social media content and activated the Dexcom Warrior community to amplify the campaign online.

Phase 2: Launch and roll-out campaign

The official launch of the 24/7 Diabetes campaign took place on Wednesday, 28 August, ahead of World Diabetes Month in November.

Launch Activities:

• Website Launch: We launched www.24-7diabetes.nl and shared content across social media. The Dexcom Warriors and our partners shared the campaign widely, creating a viral effect on platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram.
• Press Release: We issued a press release to national, local, and trade media, gaining widespread attention.
• Event at Eendrachtsplein, Rotterdam: We organized a public launch event, inviting partners, ambassadors, and families to experience the campaign firsthand. The event also included outdoor advertising on bus shelters around the area.

Peak Campaign in November:

During World Diabetes Month, the campaign reached its peak with on-the-ground activations and ongoing social media engagement. Highlights:

• The interactive experience was featured at various locations, including:
• Appelpop Festival in Tiel
• Hoog Catharijne Mall in Utrecht
• National Diabetes Congress in Bussum
• The Hague Central Station on World Diabetes Day (14 November)
• Local Media Coverage: We invited local media to these events, resulting in multiple features.
• Continuous Online Engagement: We shared tailored content across social media and activated our Warriors to spread the message even further.

We look back with pride on the creation and launch of the 24/7 Diabetes campaign. Developed in close consultation with people living with diabetes, the campaign aimed to increase understanding and awareness of the disease. The result was a comprehensive online and offline campaign, combined with a physical experience that was showcased at various locations across the Netherlands. Through this 360-degree approach, we successfully reached the general Dutch public and received heartfelt feedback from people with diabetes, who expressed that they finally felt seen and understood. Of the ten KPIs we established at the outset, we achieved 9.5 — a testament to the campaign’s success. All in all, this yielded outstanding results: