The Campaign

Ignoring their breast health is something many women do. And if there is a lump hiding in their breast, ignoring it just leaves it to get bigger and bigger, as well as more aggressive. We decided to demonstrate this by creating an annoying lump that followed women around the internet, getting bigger and more aggressive when they ignored it.

Creative Execution

There’s nothing more annoying online than retargeting banners - view a pair of shoes online, and they’ll follow you everywhere. Luckily, ‘annoying’ was exactly what we wanted to be. For Breast Cancer awareness month, we created a small lump that appeared in retargeting banners. The lump carried a simple message: “Get rid of me by booking a mammogram.” Some women took notice and booked a mammogram. But many didn’t. So the lump persisted by following them everywhere online, getting bigger and more aggressive each time they saw it. It appeared throughout their browsers, on Facebook, mobile and even on YouTube. The only way to get rid of it, was to click and book a mammogram.

Our click through rate for a simple banner campaign was fourteen times higher than industry standards. This year more women booked a mammogram than ever before, and October 2016 became New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation’s most successful mammogram drive ever.

Our target audience were women on the cusp of mammogram eligibility (35-50). Women who are older (50+) and have had mammograms before are much more likely to book in again, so the most effective thing to do is to convince women not to delay getting their first mammogram. This target spend more than 9 hours a day on screens, making retargeting banners across all platforms the most ideal way to reach them. We used the retargeting banners to bring to life what really happens with breast cancer – if you don’t take action, the cancer gets bigger and more deadly. It punished inertia, reminding women of the importance of taking action. Utilising banners on social media prompted women to share The Lump with friends, broadening the reach of the campaign and acting as a personal nudge to action.