HELP A DANE SUMMER HITS

TitleHELP A DANE SUMMER HITS
BrandTHE DANISH CANCER SOCIETY & TRYGFONDEN
Product/ServiceSUN CAMPAIGN
Category E08. Community Building & Management
Entrant &CO Copenhagen, DENMARK
Idea Creation &CO Copenhagen, DENMARK
Production &CO. PRODUCTIONS Copenhagen, DENMARK
Credits
Name Company Position
Robert Cerkez & Co. / NoA Creative Director
Kristian Eilertsen & Co. / NoA Copy writter
Ole Hoffmann & Co. / NoA Art Director
Kristoffer Winther & Co. / NoA Art Director
Thomas Hartebeck &Co. Production Producer

Background

Every year thousands of Danes travel to sunny destinations on holiday. Unfortunately, many of them return home with sunburns that increase the risk of skin cancer, and every day a Dane dies from cancer in the skin. But how do we create awareness about sun protection when Danes are hundreds or even thousands of miles away on holiday?

Describe the strategy

There’s one thing you can’t avoid when you’re holidaying in the sun: Summer hits. They’re a crucial part of the summer vibe, and they’re played everywhere. Restaurants, bars, night clubs, beaches, even taxis. So to create a campaign that could break out of paid media, we created the sound of the summer: Musical PSAs. We collaborated with international artists from popular holiday destinations to create a buzz around the songs, and we used social media, direct and PR to activate a community of more than 12.000 Help a Dane volunteers to get the songs played on local radio and by local DJ’s. The use of local languages and local artists was a deliberate trick to get attention from the media and social media users. We engaged thousands of volunteers and this provided a lot of reactions and content that we could use to target the Danes back in Denmark.

Describe the execution

Local production companies, directors and artists from tourist hot spots created five extremely different music videos each with a strong local flavor. Together, they’re a varied and visually-rich feast built around common themes like wearing sunscreen and sun hats. Supported by a carefully orchestrated media-mix the catchy songs and humorous videos went viral and got picked up by primetime news, and the songs were played in heavy rotation at tourist hot spots. Overnight, Danish sun habits were talk of the town. The campaign spread quickly on social media and a community of thousands of volunteers supported our cause to “Help a Dane”.

List the results

Most importantly, 67% say they now remember sun protection on holiday as a result of the campaign. 53% say they now know more about how to protect themselves to avoid sunburns on holiday. The campaign generated 231 million media impressions. The total number of local Help a Dane volunteers grew to 12.386. The music videos also sparked an abundance of user-generated videos, replies and content, and 190.589 social interactions.