Visualizing pollen data as data-driven bouquets
Statistics
- Client
- Opella
- Partners
- MRM Spain
- Deliverables
- Advertising campaign
- Generative visualizations
The challenge
Climate change and pollution are driving a rise in allergies, yet these risks remain largely invisible when planning travel. To position Allevia antihistamines as a travel essential, Opella needed a solution that would not only raise awareness of allergy risks but also provide travelers with actionable insights to manage them effectively. The challenge was to transform complex, real-time allergy data into a visually engaging and intuitive experience that seamlessly integrates into a traveler’s journey.
Value delivered
CLEVER°FRANKE, in collaboration with MRM Spain, developed the Allevia Pollen Passport: an innovative digital tool that provides real-time allergen data for over 70,000 destinations worldwide. Using creative coding and data visualization, the platform transforms environmental factors such as pollen levels and air quality into a dynamic, personalized botanical composition that reacts to a traveler’s itinerary. Beyond just raising awareness, the platform adds tangible value by offering dynamic discounts based on allergy risks and integrating Tripadvisor-curated experiences tailored to travelers' needs. By making allergy risks both visible and interactive, the Pollen Passport shifts Allevia from a seasonal remedy to an essential travel companion, setting a new benchmark for utility-driven advertising in the healthcare space.
Background
MRM Spain asked us to help launch an ad campaign for Opella, their global healthcare client, promoting Allevia, a top UK allergy relief brand. The campaign aimed to educate travelers about allergen risks at their destinations. The goal was to raise awareness of how environmental factors like pollen levels and air quality impact travelers, and to position Allevia as an essential companion for allergy management on the go.
Phases and toolkit items used
AlleviaPollenPassport
The Allevia Pollen Passport lets users enter their travel date and destination to receive a custom bouquet representing the pollen present during their stay, based on historical and forecast data.
Users discover the passport through various marketing channels, including airport ads and paid promotions on booking platforms, appearing in places people often visit after booking a trip or while traveling.
Data
The platform uses global air quality data, including pm2.5, pollutants like ozone, and pollen data covering overall levels, pollen groups, and specific species.
We used data provided by Ambee, an environmental intelligence company that provides real-time and forecast data on air quality and pollen with location-based granularity.
Thegenerativebouquet
Entering a travel date and destination unveils a unique generative botanical visualization. The bouquet built up by layers, taking shape from the data and displaying species that pose pollen risks at the chosen destination and time.
By linking relevant air quality data, the bouquet tells a story through its design with visual effects. The pollen risk determines the plants, while pollutants shape the bouquet’s behavior and appearance.
Plantassets
We created 156 individual assets modeled after real plant species that contribute to the pollen profile of travel destinations. With different components such as flowers, leaves, and fruits, these assets can be combined into unique data-driven bouquets.
Modularplantsystem
In the creation of the bouquet, we considered the “visual weight” of each component. Smaller elements like leaves contribute less visual weight to the visualization, while larger ones such as full plants or flowers provide a heavier presence.
Our custom-built composition engine dynamically selects components based on pollen levels—choosing larger, more prominent pieces for high pollen levels and smaller, lighter ones for lower levels. This approach ensures that the bouquets are visually pleasing while staying true to the data.
Thebouquet
Building on top of the layers of plant visualizations, pollutants tint the entire bouquet — for example, high ozone levels add a purple hue while high carbon monoxide creates a blue tint. The swaying of the plants also reflects the air quality, making the experience dynamic and engaging.
Backgrounddetails
The guilloché background pattern was crafted using mathematical formulas found in passport and currency graphics. Using the destination’s latitude and longitude, we generate a unique pattern for every location.
Datapanels
Intuitive panels help users easily understand the data and its connection to the bouquet to provide insights about the data that drives the visualization. These panels also include quick access to a glossary, offering more information on how different pollutants affect allergies.
Functionalities
Engagingintroduction
The Pollen Passport draws users in with an engaging introduction, offering a glimpse of the platform’s purpose and visuals—without revealing everything at once. A dynamic data overview showcases popular travel destinations, refreshing every few seconds with real-time updates. Users enter their destination and travel date to generate their personalized passport visualization.
Mobile-friendlydesign
Given the campaign’s focus, we prioritized a responsive and functional mobile design to ensure the visualization and its explanatory elements were easily accessible and readable on smaller screens.
Shareablefeatures
We developed a custom sharing module that allows users to share their bouquet directly on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, seamlessly and natively through the app on their phone.
Integrations
Four days before departure, we send a follow-up email with another discount, giving users a final opportunity to purchase Allevia if they haven’t already. This email also includes the same generative bouquet they created earlier, displayed directly in the message.
The platform also features a custom TripAdvisor integration — after generating their bouquet and retrieving a discount code, users are presented with top recommendations for activities and attractions at their destination, sourced directly from TripAdvisor.
Vision:AlleviaBotanicalGarden
Expanding the Pollen Passport’s capabilities, we envision a dynamic Botanical Garden—a shared digital space where users can showcase their unique bouquets. This interactive platform transforms personal allergy data into a collective experience, allowing travelers to explore and compare visualizations from different destinations. By fostering a sense of community, the Botanical Garden enhances engagement, encouraging users to share insights, discover patterns in global pollen and air quality trends, and interact with others navigating similar allergy challenges.
Technology
Technicalsetup
The platform is constructed using a diverse array of techniques, all carefully chosen to ensure seamless interaction with one another. By leveraging InertiaJS, we were able to integrate familiar technologies like React and TypeScript to work together nicely with the PHP-based Laravel framework.
Amazon’s AWS supplied the essential infrastructure for handling email dispatch and generating the static visuals included in these communications. With the help of Puppeteer, we managed to scrape certain sections of TripAdvisor that weren’t easily accessible through their API, all with the necessary permissions.
Customtooling
To assist with the development and verification of various components of the application, we created a selection of custom tools.
Manually editing over a hundred different plant assets for the bouquet, each containing a diverse range of custom data points, was nearly an impossible task. Therefore, one of these tools was designed to provide us with an interface that allowed for more efficient and granular control over each aspect of the plants. In a similar vein, we’ve also developed tools for testing the unfolding animations, crafting the email templates, testing the scraping of TripAdvisor, and more.
Results
No allergy brand in the UK is doing anything like this both in terms of creativity, use of data etc., but also in truly solving a consumer challenge in this way! This really will be a unique experience.
Charlotte Blampied
WEU Allergy Brand Manager (UK, CH, AT)
The Allevia Pollen Passport successfully transforms invisible allergy risks into an interactive, visually engaging experience, positioning Allevia as an essential travel companion. By integrating real-time pollen and air quality data with generative design, the platform provided travelers with actionable insights tailored to their destinations. The tool not only increases awareness but also drives tangible engagement—enhancing brand perception, setting a new benchmark for utility-driven advertising in the healthcare space, and redefining how allergy relief brands connect with their audiences.
