It’s something most of us would rather not think about. But for hospital nursing staff, fecal incontinence care demands constant attention—and it’s long overdue for an upgrade. Existing fecal management solutions weren’t solving much, since they leak—a mess in every sense. Leakage drives nursing burden, infection risk, cost, and patient distress. So when Germany-based Advanced Medical Balloons (AMB) introduced hygh-tec®, a system that dramatically reduces leakage and its complications, we were thrilled to help launch it in the US, potentially improving care and outcomes for thousands of patients.
What we did
- Story that wins
- Website
- VAC deck
- Collateral
- Clinical whitepaper
Breakthrough engineering and contortionists.
The hygh-tec system is a marvel of German engineering, combining innovative form and materials to transform performance. But existing communications for the European market leaned too hard into complex, difficult-to-follow explanations of the technology. And visuals featuring metaphorical images of contortionists were simply puzzling for nurses, physicians, infection control, administrators—anyone who deals with the hard realities of fecal incontinence care. To power the US launch, we needed something more clear and relatable… and we found it in two words.
There’s a name for that.
In interviews, target audience members told us when a patient experiences fecal incontinence, the call is “Code Brown.” Everyone knows what it means: Workflow disruption, infection risk, time spent on unplanned cleaning, and loss of dignity for the patient. Code Brown is strong, direct and emotional – exactly the right place to anchor our communication and launch a differentiating story.
1Gutting T, Brobeil A, Strach L, et al. Sealing efficiency and safety of a polyurethane-based fecal management system in intensive care-Results from a real-world study. Aust Crit Care. Published online July 23, 2025. doi:10.1016/j.aucc.2025.101296
Reshaping fecal management
While the engineering is anything but simple and there is an important MOA story to tell, audiences quickly understand a lot of what makes the hygh-tec system fundamentally different just by looking at a picture of it. We used elegantly rendered product illustrations to show how the unique form of the product works with the body to prevent leaks, improve comfort, and shut down Code Brown.
Building on the brand
Working with existing AMB brand elements, we told the hygh-tec story visually by combining organic shapes that echo body forms, with soft, cool colors that offset the harshness of Code Brown. We replaced images of dancers and contortionists with clinician and patient photography, bringing humanity to the picture. Data plays a key role in the story, and to set it off from the softer brand elements, we used crisp product imagery and data visualization graphics.
