MacMillan: If nobody speaks of remarkable things…

Credits & Description:

BRAND: Macmillan Cancer Support
CATEGORY: Charities
REGION: United Kingdom
DATE: February - May 2015
AGENCY: PHD
MEDIA OWNER: The Sun
MEDIA CHANNEL: Branded Content,Online,Print
Insight
Every day in the UK around 1,000 people are diagnosed with cancer. Macmillan Cancer Support is there to support people with cancer and those around them who are affected by it through every stage of their cancer journey.
In 2015, PHD's task was to raise the level of awareness and understanding around Macmillan’s range of services and talk to the people who are directly in need – those living with cancer AND those who are affected by caring for someone with cancer. There is a common misconception that Macmillan only provides nurses, whereas the reality is that it offers a breadth of the services - from financial support to online communities.
The agency's task was to communicate - to an older and predominantly analogue audience - the wide range of services that Macmillan provides and deliver it in a way that stood out and was easily digestible.
Strategy
People who do amazing things to help others tend to be modest about their achievements.
And people who need help the most are often the least likely to ask for it.
These two human truths are also two of the reasons why many people don’t know how Macmillan Cancer Support can help when the shadow of cancer is cast on their lives.
The agency's segmentation showed that there are significant proportions of Macmillan’s core audience who are affected by cancer but either don’t know how Macmillan can help them or feel as though they don’t have the right to ask for help. They tend to be digitally disconnected and lack the capacity or dynamism to take action themselves.
For this campaign, targeting these groups was key but in tandem it also needed to talk to their carers - who are harder to identify but are crucial in being able to address some of the blockages – especially being able to use online resource to ask for assistance on behalf of those living with cancer.
However, to help they actually needed to know that Macmillan was the answer.
In short, PHD needed to find a predominantly offline way to tell long-form stories of how Macmillan is there for everyone and anyone. And to do it at scale.
Execution
For a campaign designed to get people talking about cancer, the agency put the UK’s most famous ‘listener’ at its heart - Deidre, the beloved agony aunt from the UK’s biggest selling newspaper The Sun (which is read by 5.5m Brits every day).
In the first ever brand partnership with Dear Deidre, it used her page in The Sun to communicate directly with readers – every week, for over nine months.
Across 2015, 439 different pieces of branded content were created, which were seen by more than 16 million adults (about a third of the UK population).
These included;
• Deidre’s problem page being re-branded with the Macmillan logo and brand colours
• A cancer-related letter from Deidre’s mailbag being featured on the page every Monday, along with details of how to get in touch with Macmillan for help
• Double-page editorials demonstrating Macmillan’s services and showing how no one need face cancer alone
• A new feature called ‘Angel of the Week’, which showcased the difference Macmillan staff and home carers make on a daily basis. These ‘Angels’ were nominated by The Sun readers each week and chosen by Deidre herself.
As thesun.co.uk sat within a paywall at the time, to ensure that everyone had access to how to get help, the agency also negotiated a free-to-access Deidre/Macmillan Hub which housed all of the campaign content online alongside links to the Macmillan website.
Results
The partnership exceeded expectations - increasing the knowledge of what Macmillan can do to help across all target groups - those who have family/friends affected; those diagnosed with the disease and those most likely to be diagnosed in the future.
• Deidre’s post bag received a tenfold increase in cancer-related correspondence from readers, all of whom were directed to services that Macmillan could provide
• Those with family or friends affected by cancer are now 29% more likely to spontaneously mention Macmillan than before the campaign ran
• Amongst those who have been diagnosed with cancer there has been a 15% increase in the proportion of people confident in their knowledge of Macmillan.
By talking about the remarkable things that Macmillan can do in a contextually perfect environment, this branded content partnership has been a powerful demonstration of how to go beyond badging to deliver numerous, multi-faceted brand messages that can quite literally change lives.