CASE STUDIES
How we made blood cancer visible
Creating a hard-hitting and informative creative campaign to grow awareness about blood cancer
Blood cancer is the third biggest cancer killer in the UK, claiming more lives than breast and prostate cancer and impacting 24,000 adults and children every year. However, 96% of the public are unaware of its prevalence.
The client challenged us to develop an interactive experience to drive awareness. To cut through the noise we knew we had to create an emotive, relevant message and easy to implement call to action.
Approach
We developed an engaging, interactive installation, which formed the basis of a hard-hitting campaign during blood cancer awareness month. This is how we did it:
- We conducted an audit of the research developed by the patient advocacy groups (PAGs), helping us to pinpoint the lack of awareness and form a starting point for galvanising the public
- The campaign centred around life-sized, speaking, transparent figures, placed in high visibility areas around the UK to represent the unseen, over-looked and ignored blood cancer patients
- We project managed every step of the campaign from scouring the UK for the best locations in Edinburgh, Manchester, Cardiff and London, to managing the design, build, and even the number of LED lights used in each figure
- We used ground-breaking technology to ensure the lights and sound were synched with the public's interaction with the figures, resulting in an eye-catching display that was especially impactful at night
- In total 10 patients recorded their own stories, which were played in choral composition as part of the installation to create an evocative surround-sound effect
- The figures were both moveable and waterproofed – quite a feat considering the installation had to be self contained and run off its own power supply
- Coverage of the statue tour was accompanied by the hashtag #makebloodcancervisible, which garnered engagement from the public, healthcare professionals and members of parliament through social media.
Impact
During blood cancer awareness month, our installation reached 1.9 million people. More than 34 million people were also reached via social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram).
The campaign was a success, with 13,092 pledges of support via the ‘big red button’ at the display locations. Website traffic to the microsite also increased five-fold when compared to the previous year.
The installation garnered national media attention with more than 240 news items covering the campaign and raising awareness about blood cancer across the country.
The creativity and strength of the patient voices made sure this campaign had maximum impact.
Head of Haematology UK