While Integrated Marketing Lead at Prostate Cancer UK

Entrepreneurial thinking is a crucial element of an integrated approach. This project was entirely my initiative. I reached out to contacts I’d made while at Parkinson’s UK and was able to secure the gift of a 10 minute takeover of the iconic billboard in Piccadilly Circus – known as Piccadilly Lights (Landsec) to celebrate Dad’s on Father’s Day.

Challenge:

1 in 8 men will get Prostate Cancer, and too many are being diagnosed too late, and by chance. The charity didn’t have anything planned for Father’s Day and this seemed like a missed opportunity to raise awareness. The new brand strategy was ‘it’s about time’ (time for a screening program, no time to waste in getting checked, earlier diagnosis means less invasive treatments).

Solution:

I pitched an idea to my contacts at Landsec with the creative proposition: ‘This screen could save lives.’ They loved it, so we were able to Go BIG on Father’s Day, on the BIG screen in Piccadilly Circus and build an integrated campaign around it. With a QR link going directly to the Prostate Cancer Risk Checker, the big screen could quite literally ‘save lives.’ This then supported the rolling Risk Checker campaign the charity was running and delivered a significant moment and a focus that elevated Prostate Cancer UK’s presence on Father’s Day.

I scripted and storyboarded the film, working with the in-house creative team and ensuring the handover to the production partners I’d used at Parkinson’s UK. I then planned and delivered the integration supporting the moment with organic assets, web content, a PR plan with a detailed messaging document and package and filmed interviews with men living with the condition, live streamed from Piccadilly Circus on the day to build a social media campaign, supported with other filmed and photography content made available to channels in time for evening bulletins.

The objective was to show the community the charity was actively on their side, ambitious for them, and a little audacious, which fits the brand personality.

Results:

The BBC picked it up as a Father’s Day segment and the community rallied behind it. Risk Checks on the online tool also spiked – which means men at high risk learned about prostate cancer, and men with prostate cancer will have been picked up (statistically as low as 1 in 4 men in high risk groups will have Prostate Cancer) so the screen in Piccadilly Circus will have saved lives. The planned follow up was to develop the stories of men who had taken the risk checker.