Combining timeless children’s storytelling with cutting-edge technology, Eisai Korea and Weber Shandwick helped tens of thousands of families better understand the complex experience of living with dementia.
The Challenge
An incurable mental condition, dementia currently affects 749,000 Koreans. As a partner of Korea’s National Institute of Dementia, Eisai wanted to empower families help kids cope, while increasing understanding about the condition to help those afflicted to recognise their symptoms and access early treatment.
The Solution
Working with experts in child psychology and in partnership with Korea’s National Institute of Dementia, Eisai Korea and Weber Shandwick helped author a new children’s book – “Who Sprinkled Salt on My Cake?” It tells the story of a princess whose encounter with dementia begins when her mother bakes a cake using salt instead of sugar.
Making Dementia Easier to Understand
With the help of illustrators, animators and technologists, a magical Augmented Reality storybook was created. The AR technology made the characters appear animated when seen through a smartphone, making the story intriguing and exciting to young readers who were motivated to read the book again and again. The children engaged their parents to read it with them, generating awareness and healthy conversations about dementia between parent and child
Impact
“I did not know how to explain to my daughters about dementia. This AR book really helped me. Now, the whole family openly talks about it. This has never happened before.”
Within one week, 22,000 books had made their way into Korean households, dementia centers, schools and libraries. An extra 8,000 copies had to be printed in response to high demand, bringing the total of copies in circulation to 30,000 – enough to qualify as a best-seller, in Korean publishing metrics. As a result, the campaign had to be extended six months longer than originally planned.