N/a: #MAMMING

Credits & Description:

Type of entry: Sectors
Category: Charity & not for Profit
Advertiser: N/A
Product/Service: BREAST CANCER AWARENESS
Agency: 360i New York, USA
Client: N/A
Product: BREAST CANCER AWARENESS
Entrant: 360i New York, USA
Type of Entry: Sectors
Category: Charity & not for Profit
Entrant Company : 360i New York, USA
Advertising Agency : 360i New York, USA
Production Company : DIRTY ROBBER Los Angeles, USA
Chief Creative Officer: Adam Kerj (360i)
Creative Director: Aaron Mosher (360i)
Creative Director: David Yankelewitz (360i)
Art Director: Michele Jaret (360i)
Copywriter: Michelle Lamont (360i)
Tech Developer: Brian Blakely (360i)
Technical Director: Robert Durbin (360i)
Producer: Jamie Florence (360i)
Describe the campaign/entry:
In support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, two female agency creatives (one a breast cancer survivor herself) wanted to give people a chance to show solidarity with the millions of women getting mammograms every year.
The passion project embraced the awkwardness of mammograms to remind folks that millions of lives can be saved by early detection. In fact, when breast cancer is caught early, over 90 percent of women beat it.
Through a short video starring some familiar faces such as Erin Daniels from “The L Word,” the team asked people to snap pictures of themselves “mamming” and share them via Instagram. The photographs were then curated and featured on www.thisismamming.com.
Key to the initiative was a Digital PR effort that employed influencer marketing to drive early momentum and ensure that the message was being communicated in the appropriate fashion. This was not a facetious campaign in vein with the memes it was modeled after, rather this was an effort to change the conversation from awareness-based to action-based – to inspire women to not only think about the cause, but to also take an action that could potentially save their lives.
In the end, the campaign drove more than 330 million impressions without a single media dollar being spent. More importantly, it drove thoughtful conversations about mammograms, with many participants noting that the effort had inspired them to get mammograms.
Describe the brief from the client:
Two female agency creatives, one a breast cancer survivor herself, wanted to make people more comfortable with the conversation and the procedure, and they knew social media would be a great place to start.
Based on the insight that mammograms are inherently awkward, they set out to educate people on the procedure and face its existing reputation head-on. When entering the cultural conversation, the balance between being relevant and tackling a serious issue would be critical to the program’s success.
From Day 1, the objective was to inspire thoughtful conversations around the cause and encourage women to get mammograms.
Results:
The effort instantly gained global press coverage in places like Fast Company, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post UK, The New York Post, Creativity and more. It was shared by celebrities such as heavyweight boxing champ Lennox Lewis, digital curator Guy Kawasaki and Whoopi Goldberg — who got in on the action by mamming on the popular ABC talk show "The View”.
Individual organizations supported the cause through their own activations at events like Race for the Cure, and a group of men in the UK even started their own version of the meme to raise awareness for testicular cancer. With zero paid media support, the campaign went global and viral, garnering over 332 million earned media impressions.
Most importantly, all of the media and social buzz sparked a conversation about prevention. And though these conversations started with #mamming, they ended with mammograms, proving the power of social media to make a real difference.
Execution:
The campaign was rolled out in a simple and straightforward fashion. First, the team created a humorous web video starring recognizable actresses who donated their time to the cause.
The goal of the video was to demonstrate mamming in a humorous way, drive people to our site to learn more and to give people something worth sharing with their own social networks.
ThisIsMamming.com contained information about the cause, and a constantly refreshing grid that populated with the latest #mamming photos from around the world.
Digital PR was used to seed the campaign with relevant bloggers to build hype early on, and the effort took off from there. It wasn’t long before BuzzFeed was calling mamming “the next big thing” on the Internet and popular daytime talk show hosts were mamming on air.
The Situation:
One in eight women will be affected by breast cancer in her lifetime. Right now, early detection is our best defense against the disease – but mammograms are awkward, painful and uncomfortable to talk about.

Furthermore, though popular breast cancer awareness initiatives have done tremendous amounts of good to raise awareness about the cause in general, no existing effort focused on inspiring women to take action and perform the simple, albeit “awkward,” act of getting a mammogram.

The Strategy:
#Mamming was a new spin on an existing Internet favorite, “planking.” The idea was to get people to Instagram photos of themselves laying their (clothed) breasts on things, just like a woman does during a mammogram.

The team worked with famous comedy actresses – who donated their time to create a video for getting the word out – and created a website to provide information about the cause and curate the deluge of #mamming photographs submitted by eager fans engaging with the campaign.

A Digital PR effort was built into the early stages of the initiative so that relevant influencers and bloggers could drive early momentum and ensure that the campaign message resonated loud and clear.