Taken orally, Delstrigo is a fixed-dose combination antiretroviral medication for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, containing doravirine, lamivudine, and tenofovir disoproxil.

Delstrigo, a new and inspiring treatment in the ongoing fight against HIV, entered my studio through Havas’ video arm, Studio 6. The team there had already completed the initial cutdowns for broadcast and digital placement, and because of the strong collaborative chemistry between the client, the agency, and our internal creative teams, Merck approached us with a highly ambitious ask. They wanted to mirror — and ideally match — the industry-shaking scrolling ISI execution Bayer had debuted at a major pharma conference the year prior, but this time across both video assets and HTML5.

I was tapped by my longtime collaborator and friend, Emily Wilson from Studio 6, because she and I had a track record of building the impossible together — especially in high-stakes, medically regulated environments. My studio took ownership of developing the social media suite that would extend the stop-motion, first-generation visual language already in-market for Delstrigo. The goal was not just to replicate the aesthetic, but to elevate it while meeting an entirely new regulatory and technical challenge.

It was a genuinely joyful assignment — the kind that allows you to combine artistry with precision. I established the full animation architecture, including size ratios, movement cadence, pacing curves, and transition logic for all video-based social assets. To recreate Bayer’s scrolling ISI behavior, I sourced the exact FDA-approved scroll speed, vertical movement parameters, and screen-percentage visibility requirements directly from the precedent-setting execution. I then reverse-engineered that behavior to ensure our assets would match it flawlessly — maintaining compliance while delivering a polished, premium creative experience.

Across the build, we produced three fully compliant assets that combined:

• stop-motion footage,
• campaign logos and graphic elements,
• and the full ISI copy set in FDA-compliant size, color, contrast, and legibility standards.

Every aspect — animation timing, color values, textual clarity, and scroll behavior — was crafted to meet stringent FDA criteria, including thoughtful accommodations for visually impaired audiences. The final work honored the original campaign while proving that regulated pharma content can still feel inventive, contemporary, and highly intentional.