The Challenge: Takeda Pharmaceutical approached Marvel with a unique challenge. They wanted to reduce the negative stigma around IBD (Irritable Bowel Disease) by creating a super hero who has the condition. But they didn't want to create a generic "Pharma Ad" styled hero, so they needed help. They wanted to call the campaign IBD Unmasked, but they needed help.
The Solution: The Creative Lead for Marvel's Custom Projects team, Darren Sanchez, proposed a multi-tiered "Education and Awareness" campaign that would start with one hero, but develop into a new five-hero Super Hero TEAM. Then that team would feature in an 88 page graphic novel, released in chapters (digitally) and then made available in print, as a convention giveaway. Takeda was on board with the idea and the planning was soon under way and the process of creating the first hero began in earnest. For that Sanchez called in Pharma professional, Comic Book scribe, and fellow former Wizard staffer, Buddy Scalera.
The the call went out to Marvel artist extraordinaire, Fernando Blanco to design the look of the hero. The shining result was Ian Diaz, AKA "SAMARIUM." A five-page origin story was written by Scalera and drawn by Blanco and released domestically as a five part short story, online. The five-page story can be read in the images below.
After Samarium was established as the first ever hero with IBD, the focus turned to the international campaign which means creating the super hero team and writing the graphic novel. For that, Sanchez turned to writer and co-creator of Deadpool, Fabian Nicieza. (Darren, Fabian and Buddy shown below)
Marvel and Takeda facilitated a unique brainstorming session where IBD patients from around the globe collaborated with premier comic book creators (Sanchez, Scalera and Nicieza) to create a graphic novel that would bring their stories to life. These IBD patients were given real input in the creation of the characters, the storyline, even the details of the uniforms. Their feedback and insight was vital to making the project credible and authentic and it lead to a revolution in patient education.
Next up was the creation of four more heroes and a new super villain for the full-length story, written by Nicieza, with character designs by artist, Sean Chen, for the graphic novel. The story featured the origin of the new team, THE UNBEATABLES.
The Results: The campaign was a resounding success. So much so that Takeda, their ad agency and the Custom Team at Marvel were recognized with multiple marketing awards and nominations for the unique approach taken in this project.
