Imagine having an evil perspiration fairy who follows you around and decides at the most inappropriate moments that you will sweat like Iguaçu Falls. For 1 in 5 Americans, constant sweating is a very real problem, and no one had figured out a lasting way to fix it. Until, that is, our client miraDry developed an innovative procedure that eliminates underarm sweat by over 80%, giving hope to sweat-gifted people everywhere.

miraDry asked us for a campaign that would hook the female segment of this audience, since initial research showed women were more open to finding a sweat solution. Our strategy team recruited female super-sweaters (imagine breaking the ice on those phone calls) and spent days in focus groups asking them what it’s like to sweat too much, and the million ways it makes everything harder. First dates. Job interviews. Wearing any color besides Johnny Cash black. Or even just walking down the street. Some stories were near-painful, but the women were glad to openly vent about the issue.

Of all the insights we unearthed, one rose to the top: Your sweat doesn’t define you. We needed women to realize that they aren’t the problem – sweat is the enemy. It’s an intruder that prevents the real you from shining. These women could be feeling spectacular, when for some unknown reason their pits activate like loose sprinklers, making them look and feel nervous, verklempt, and just plain out of whack.

It was clear that sweat felt like some “thing” that takes over women’s bodies. So we thought: What if we brought Sweat to life? Gave it a voice? Translating those awkward feelings into words was bound to be funny – and it positioned sweat as the problem. Radio was the perfect medium, and a campaign was born – or at least, conceived. Like any healthy being, it needed to incubate, grow, and pass rigorous testing before it could enter the world.

We brought our focus groups back to test the radio spots, and the women devoured them. The work both entertained, and appealed to the emotions they deal with regularly. Five months after our research phase began, the spots have begun running in Miami and Atlanta on Pandora’s web and mobile sites.  In its first week, click-through rates notably outperformed the average for local campaigns.

Like we always say, it pays to do advertising the right way. By not jumping straight to the pretty pictures, but instead starting with a carefully crafted plan based on actual, confirmed facts. Yes, this means successful creative can’t just be birthed overnight. But when it finally comes to life, it’s breathtaking. Or in some cases, it’s the grating voice of a 40-year-old woman from the Bronx.

Listen to the spots below.

miraDry: “First Date”

miraDry: “Job Interview”