PSOUL: The one-of-a-kind patients’ magazine

AbbVie Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG

Tons of informational brochures about psoriasis are available. Usually these are well-intentioned guides for a target group that has the feeling it’s already read it all. But how do you reach people who have been excluded because of their condition, kicked out of public swimming pools, people who stopped informing themselves about the disease and have withdrawn into lives of private isolation?

Instead of giving people more high-handed lecturing, our aim was to create an encouraging publication. We wanted to replace well-intentioned advice with honesty, entertainment and news-to-use, to give psoriasis sufferers a voice and to make their unfiltered and honest stories the heart of an extraordinary magazine.

The PSOUL Magazine breaks with conventions in patient communications. Every issue deals with an individual topic and focuses on real patients who share their very personal journeys. PSOUL owes its authenticity to these multi-page cover stories. What’s especially important: We offer a look into the private lives of patients who are at entirely different stages of treatment. This is how we can make sure that our readers can identify with the featured heroes and will feel represented, no matter whether they’ve just had a relapse or they’re already symptom-free. All patients are aware that psoriasis can’t be cured – but still too few are aware that the disease is so highly treatable today that you (almost) can’t see anything on the skin. The journalistic format to the articles lends the right editorial twist and creates intimacy, believability and common ground.

And the kicker is in the formatting: The background color for the cover and back page are based on the portrait and skin tone of the featured patient, which gives variety to the magazine’s color scheme and symbolizes the individual and natural diversity of all patients. Together with a modern design and Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper, this also ensures high-quality presentation. The ensemble lifts PSOUL above the typical high-gloss waiting room magazines in a very special way.

The combination of disarming honesty and authentic knowledge-sharing is well-received. PSOUL has become a trusted source of inspiration and ideas on the topic of psoriasis. In addition to the print magazine and digital extension, an Instagram community has also emerged. There, patients support each other, talk about the magazine’s content and recommend it to others using the hashtag #psoriasiswarrior. PSOUL is distributed to dermatological practices and centers through the external sales team of the biopharmaceutical company AbbVie. This means the content goes directly to patients in the waiting rooms without scatter loss. This way healthcare practitioners also come into contact with the publication. Doctors have been so won over by PSOUL that they are now ordering it proactively from sales representatives.

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