Talking to with patients\n\nOne of the fringe benefits of reviewing all the entries for the Med Ad News Manny Awards annually is that we, the editors, have the opportunity to watch the future of healthcare communications grow before our eyes. Each year a handful of agencies and brands come up with campaigns so startlingly different that they change the very idea of what can and should be expected from a healthcare brand campaign. Such was the case this year for patient experiences, as two Manny Award-winning campaigns – AREA 23’s Magnetic Stories and Science &amp; Purpose’s Sounds of NPC – found ways to broaden the scope of what \"patient experience\" means in the context of brand communications. In both cases, the campaigns moved far beyond mere messaging and actually became tools for experiencing and interacting with their respective brands in entirely new ways.\n\nMagnetic Stories\n\nAREA 23 / Siemens Healthineers\n\nBest Patient Engagement Campaign\n\nBest Patient Engagement Campaign | Magnetic Stories\n\nMagnetic Stories is a unique audiobook collection that transforms a scary MRI into a wondrous experience for younger patients. Every MRI scan makes a unique sequence of sounds, so it is possible to predict when each of them will occur in the scan. Working with client Siemens Healthineers, <a>AREA 23</a> collected the sound sequences of the most common pediatric MRI scans (cranial, liver, spine, sella turcica, and ears) and, in partnership with renowned authors and sound designers, produced audiobooks that sync story moments precisely with each sound of the scan.\n\nAccording to Viton Araújo, creative partner, AREA 23, the idea for Magnetic Stories emerged from a fundamental goal – make MRI scans less terrifying for children – and from a fundamental insight: children aren’t afraid of sound – they’re afraid of not understanding it. Even with cutting-edge image quality and shorter scan times, the emotional experience of these exams – particularly the jarring, unpredictable noises – remained a major hurdle, often requiring sedation or delaying procedures. The goal was to humanize the scan process and turn fear into imagination. So what if those harsh, abstract noises told a story?\n\n\"We partnered with Leya, a renowned children’s publishing house, and with CUF, Portugal’s leading hospital group, and their Siemens Healthineers technology,\" Araújo told Med Ad News. \"Over the course of several months, we matched the sound patterns of common pediatric MRI sequences to custom-written audiobooks – each one designed to sync perfectly with the scan. The loud thumping became a robot’s voice. The deep whirr of the recondenser transformed into the engine of a magical train. From there, it became a cross-functional labor of love — writers, sound designers, radiology technicians, and Siemens Healthineers experts all aligning to build something no one had done before.\" \n\nThe pilot for Magnetic Stories was launched at CUF hospital in Lisbon, the largest private hospital chain in Portugal. \"The feedback has been very positive, as it has contributed to the comfort and reduction in anxiety among young patients,\" Araújo says. \"Magnetic Stories offers Siemens Healthineers a unique layer of value: emotionally intelligent, story-driven content engineered specifically for Siemens Healthineers MRI sound sequences. The project can significantly improve the experience of pediatric patients and positively impact their health journey.\" \n\nThe creative and technical complexity behind achieving something like Magnetic Stories – syncing a narrative with medical-grade sound sequences and making it believable and enjoyable for young patients – was no small hurdle. It required deep research into how each MRI scan sounds across regions of the body and an intimate understanding of how to turn that into rhythm, plot, and meaning, Araújo explains. \"We initially explored an AI-generated content approach, hoping to scale easily by mapping sound to auto-written stories. But the results felt hollow and generic. It became clear that the emotional power of this campaign relied on authenticity – human writers crafting stories with empathy, structure, and imagination. That decision changed everything.\" \n\nAnd of course storytelling for an audience of children brought its own unique challenges. \"We knew that storytelling for children isn’t just about entertainment – it’s about transporting them,\" Araújo told Med Ad News. \"This was especially the case given that they would be lying still inside a medical machine, feeling vulnerable.\" To do this, the team leaned on Joseph Campbell Hero’s Journey structure, giving each story a sense of progress, agency, and wonder. They also incorporated poetic language and rhyme to create a dreamy, immersive atmosphere. And working with pediatric specialists and radiology technicians was critical – \"They helped us understand what children react to during scans, and how long their attention spans last. The biggest challenge was ensuring the story aligned not just with the duration of the scan, but with its unpredictable rhythm. Every sound had to map to a moment in the plot. It was like writing with your ears.\" \n\nIn the process of creating Magnetic Stories, AREA 23 was able to collaborate with some of Leya’s most beloved children’s authors, writers with a deep understanding of rhythm, emotion, and how to build immersive worlds in short formats. But instead of allowing those authors to write freely and adding the sounds afterwards, the team had to reverse the usual creative process. \"We gave the authors the raw, unfiltered sounds of real MRI scans as their foundation,\" Araújo says. \"The challenge was to build a story around those intimidating noises – not to soften them, but to give them meaning. Every beep, bang, and pulse became part of the narrative structure.\" \n\nOne of Araújo’s favorite examples of this is the flying train story – a joyful, dreamlike tale where the MRI sounds become the rhythmic engine of a magical train that lifts off into space. What begins as a routine scan transforms into an intergalactic journey, with each clunk and drone guiding the child further into a world of wonder. \"It’s not just about distraction – it’s about reclaiming the moment, turning fear into imagination, and giving children a sense of adventure where there was once only anxiety.\" \n\nSounds of NPC\n\nScience &amp; Purpose / Coherus BioSciences\n\nBest Rare Disease Campaign\n\nBest Rare Disease Campaign | Sounds of NPC\n\n<a>Sounds of NPC</a> is a first-of-its-kind awareness campaign that uses sound as a self-screening tool for nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC), a rare cancer that often goes undiagnosed until it’s advanced. One of the early symptoms of NPC is hearing loss – especially in the higher frequencies between 3,500 Hz and 6,000 Hz, and often in just one ear. So The Purpose Group built a campaign around that insight. The centerpiece was a radio ad that actually functioned as a hearing check. It used specific high-frequency tones embedded in a noisy, real-world soundscape – like a restaurant – to help listeners identify whether they might be experiencing that kind of hearing loss. If someone noticed a discrepancy, they were directed to NPCFacts.com, where they could take a more detailed interactive sound test, also designed to assess hearing across both ears and provide next steps.\n\nAccording to Tyler Maxson, senior VP, creative director, Patients&amp; Purpose (P&amp;P), Sounds of NPC didn’t arise from a specific client assignment – it came because he and his colleagues were thinking ahead. \"We’re always staying immersed in emerging research and patient realities,\" he told Med Ad News. \"At The Purpose Group, we’ve built a creative platform called /Imagine, where we proactively bring clients bold ideas that live outside traditional brand plans – ideas that stretch thinking and open new possibilities.\" \n\nNPC is incredibly rare – fewer than 3,000 cases annually in the United States – so identification and diagnosis are just as much of a challenge as treatment. There’s little awareness, few specialists, and no standard screening. \"When we came across a study showing that many NPC patients struggle to hear specific frequencies – between 3,500 Hz and 6,000 Hz – we knew we had something,\" Maxson explains.\n\nSo the team created a radio spot designed to function as a hearing check in real time. \"We used voiceovers and environmental soundscapes that played within those NPC-related frequencies. Listeners could detect possible hearing loss – and if anything felt off, they were directed to NPCFacts.com to take a more in-depth interactive test.\" \n\nAccording to Maxson, the agency’s client, Coherus Oncology, immediately recognized the power of the idea. \"They saw how big it could be, not just creatively, but in helping people spot a disease that usually goes unnoticed until it’s advanced. That kind of client partnership is rare, and it’s what made this possible.\" The campaign drove more than 750,000 impressions, with a record number of visitors to NPCFacts.com – a substantial result for a cancer most people have never heard of. \"The interactive sound test saw strong engagement, and we’re now exploring ways to expand this approach to other channels and patient groups. It’s clear there’s potential here beyond just NPC.\" \n\nOne key component of Sounds of NPC was its focus on Chinese Americans, who are disproportionately affected by NPC. \"We build teams that reflect the communities we’re trying to reach,\" Maxson explains. \"For this campaign, most of our team was Asian American – and many spoke Mandarin. That wasn’t just helpful, it was essential. They brought deep cultural understanding to the messaging, script, and delivery.\" The team recorded the radio spots in both English and Mandarin and worked closely with its media team to geotarget regions with higher NPC prevalence. \"We placed the ads on streaming platforms like Spotify and Pandora and also on key Chinese-language AM/FM stations across the country. That cultural alignment gave the campaign authenticity – and helped build immediate trust.\" \n\nOne of the biggest takeaways from the Sounds of NPC experience, Maxson told Med Ad News, was the untapped potential that lies in existing technologies. \"You don’t always need to invent something new,\" he says. \"In this case, sound design became a diagnostic tool.\" And with this not-so-cutting-edge technology, P&amp;P was able to achieve a degree of intimacy with its audience that many higher-tech campaigns never reach. \"Most campaigns talk about patients – this one spoke to them, directly and personally, through their own ears,\" Maxson explains. \"It didn’t require a click, a scan, or even a doctor’s visit. Just a moment of listening.\" \n\nSo how can other brands achieve that level of intimacy? \"Start with the data,\" Maxson says. \"Let the insight lead, not the technology. It’s tempting to chase innovation for its own sake, especially with AI opening new doors every day – but the idea has to come first. If you ground it in real patient need and real-world data, the path becomes clear. Also, never skip testing with actual patients. That feedback loop is critical. You’re not just launching a campaign – you’re potentially guiding someone toward a life-changing diagnosis. You have to get it right.

Talking to with patients

Two campaigns, Magnetic Stories by AREA 23 for Siemens Healthineers and Sounds of NPC by Science & Purpose for Coherus BioSciences, are highlighted as innovative approaches to enhancing patient experience in healthcare through immersive storytelling and sound-based diagnostic tools.