World Psoriasis Day 2023 in Finland – Psoriasis is a whole body disease

Our World Psoriasis Day 2023 campaign focused on psoriasis as a whole body disease which often affects mental health. We kept our theme essentially the same as previous year as we’ve found out that having a consecutive theme for more than one year at a time helps both us and the public in getting more information through.

Our campaign had a total of six sponsors: AbbVie, Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Janssen Finland, Novartis Finland and UCB. The campaign activities were entirely funded by grants from sponsors.

Our main activities were a comphrehensive survey on the state of psoriasis treatment as well as an infomation campaign on social media about the various effects and aspects of psoriatic disease.

Survey

The survey was conducted online, sent via email to all of our members with valid email addresses and promoted on our social media channels so that non-members also had the possibility to answer. The survey asked respondents questions on the state of their psoriatic disease. It also asked to evaluate the quality of their holistic care and treatment for psoriasis: whether the respondents had been asked or told by a healthcare professional about comorbidities and their screening, mental health, rehabilitation and so on. The survey was running from June 26th to July 31st and got 1 823 respondents.

Key results and findings from the survey:

- Half of psoriasis patients feel that psoriasis affects their mental health (eg. stress, insomnia, exhaustion, anxiety, depression). This was even more prominent in those respondents who were under 40 years old.

- Three out of four people haven’t discussed mental health issues with healthcare professionals. Only one percent had been offered services from a psychologist or psychiatrist.

- More than half suffer from one or several comorbidities. Only one third have discussed them with their doctor.

- Psoriasis patients give their treatment an average grade of 7,0 on a scale from 4 to 10.

- More than half feel that their treatment doesn’t take into account the impact of psoriasis on quality of life.

- Three out of four people have never been suggested rehabilitation.

- More than half are unsure whether they have a written treatment plan or don’t know where to find it.

- One in two feel it is unclear who has the responsibility of their treatment.

Social media campaign

We published the results during World Psoriasis Day week on social media and asked for our followers’ experiences. We also did some paid social media advertising, which had a very good reach. Between October 23rd and 31st we had a total reach of 40 673 on Facebook and 32 922 on Instagram. On X (Twitter) we had 2 451 impressions. Our web site had a total of 12 393 visits during the same time.

Media and decision-makers

We organized a native marketing campaign with the help of a communications agency, leading to an interview published on our web site. With an advertising budget of 700 euros, the campaign got 120 210 impressions and 900 clicks, which during that period is a very good result.

We sent out a press release on October 25th highlighting the result with an opening rate of 24,5. We also sent out two identical WPD newsletters with different audiences with opening rates of 48,5 and 53,6. As far as we are aware, we got a total of 8 media hits on World Psoriasis Day, the best of which was a ten-minute slot in the very popular and well-known TV morning show Huomenta Suomi on October 30th.

We also reached out to decision-makers and held an event in the Finnish Parliament on October 27th. Several MPs and their advisors came to visit and received information on psoriasis and issues related to the disease.

Local events

11 local associations held a total of 15 events on or around WPD across the country: Helsinki, Porvoo, Hyvinkää, Lahti, Kouvola, Turku, Tampere, Seinäjoki, Vaasa, Nivala, Oulu and Kajaani.

All in all we feel that the theme got good coverage and feedback. For future campaigns we wish to receive more media coverage and therefore spend more resources on media pitching.our article here.