Skin Cancer Awareness: "THE LIGHT’S ON NOW" Promo / PR Ad by Um

Category: Best Use of Cinema
Advertiser: THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT
Product/Service: SKIN CANCER AWARENESS
Date of First Appearance: Dec 26 2009 12:00AM
Entrant Company: UM, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Client Service Director: Simon Grace
Strategist: James Sneddon
Planner/Buyer: Michelle van Eerde
Buyer: Johanna Packham
Media placement: Cinema – 500 screens - Cinemas nationally - 26/12/2009

Results and Effectiveness
The campaign was a shining success. We impacted over a third of young Australians in a captive environment with our sun safety experience. Tracking revealed that our initiative had the highest recall of any cinema campaign that ran in Australia in 2009.

Creative Execution
Cinema goers expect adverts to run just before the film trailers. We ran our 4 year-old skin cancer ad, then stopped our young ‘popcorn munchers’ in their tracks just before the movie was to begin. We turned the cinema lights up bright – real bright. We brought sunshine into the cinema. A voice then rang out informing the audience of the dangers of skin cancer in the context of the cinema environment they were in. For example: “400,000 Australians are diagnosed each year – that’s like 2,000 cinemas full of people!” and “Short periods of time in the sun, like the length of this movie we’re about to show could cause irreversible damage” The lights then dimmed and the movie started. At the end of the movie we reinforced our sun-safe message with digital outdoor panels in the foyer, and when people stepped out into the sunshine – we gave them sunscreen.

Insights, Strategy & the Idea
Our brief from the Australian government was to change perceptions and behaviour of young Australians about the dangers of sun exposure. Research showed that young ‘Aussies’ were disengaged from the skin cancer message - it’s not a problem that they think about day to day. Campaigns in the past had done little to change real behaviour amongst this group. Our challenge was to bring the very real dangers of skin cancer to life in a fresh and engaging way. We brought the message to life when they least expected it. We brought the sun into cinemas, a place where young Aussies flock on mass to avoid the heat every summer.