GSK Consumer Healthcare’s migraine simulator helps break barriers

GSK Consumer Healthcare is challenging the common misconception that migraines are just a “bad headache” by creating the world’s first augmented reality migraine simulator.

(To view the full Retail Health 2027 report, click here.)



The Migraine Experience is the first simulator designed to give nonsufferers the chance to safely experience symptoms of a migraine including disorientation, aura, sensitivity to light and blurred vision. By giving nonsufferers a controlled glimpse of what it’s like to experience a migraine, the team is breaking down barriers of misunderstanding between the 36 million U.S. sufferers and their loved ones.



GSK Consumer Healthcare has been arranging in-store demonstrations for the second and third quarters of 2016.



“The reaction has been unbelievable,” Amardeep Kahlon, marketing director of pain, skin and respiratory at GSK Consumer Healthcare, told Drug Store News. “The program has generated well in excess of 200 million impressions [since April 2016],” he said, and now GSK Consumer Healthcare is working to keep the conversation going.



“The beauty of [GSK Consumer Healthcare’s Migraine Experience] is for brands to think differently about how they can connect with the consumer in the future,” noted Steve Perlowski, VP industry affairs and member relations at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. “It’s a great way brands can leverage technology going forward in terms of helping to meet a customers needs or market differently.”