Success with Action Man

With just one month to go before this year’s SCOPE Awards are announced, Joe Braden identifies some of the factors that went into producing last year’s winning Action Man campaign, which bagged the ‘overall winner from a large organisation’ award for Action Cancer.

In June 2001 local charity Action Cancer and leading IT services company Sx3 launched a unique cause-related marketing partnership to raise awareness of male cancers in Northern Ireland. The Action Man campaign, with ‘Get a Grip’ slogan was conceived as a bold, ‘in your face’ marketing initiative to run annually during June...for the past two years Action Man has been making an impact among men in Northern Ireland

The ‘fit’ between Sx3 and Action Cancer was highly appropriate as 68% of employees in the IT industry are men and the company worked hard to encourage the support of it’s business partners, customers and suppliers.

The Action Man campaign objectives are to:

• raise awareness of men’s cancers, the need for men to take action and exercise self examination
• raise awareness of Action Cancer and it’s men’s clinics
• sign-post men to their GPs
• generate information-giving hits on Action Cancer’s website
• raise significant funds for Action Cancer
• confirm Sx3 as a friend in the community who cares about issues that apply to it’s workforce, their families and the wider business community.

Background to the campaign:

Over 220 men die from prostate and testicular cancers each year in Northern Ireland - this can be reduced with earlier detection and better knowledge of the risks and symptoms. Male cancer is a sensitive health issue as men are traditionally reluctant to visit their doctor with problems.

Pre-campaign research showed that men would be most likely to act if relevant information was presented in a humorous, challenging and cheeky way with endorsement from a well-known role model. Jimmy Nesbitt, of Cold Feet fame, agreed to be patron of the campaign, helping the organisations to gain extensive media coverage for the campaign.

Sx3’s sponsorship made the campaign possible – ensuring advertising across Northern Ireland and PR activity. Staff at Sx3 also raised significant funds for Action Cancer’s men’s services. In addition to financial support, Sx3 drew heavily on its internal skills base, from marketing to website development, to ensure the Action Man campaign was a success.

Innovative marketing techniques played a crucial role in the campaign:

• humorous TV and outdoor ads were devised using local actors and the ‘Get A Grip’ message
• Action Cancer/Sx3 were the first to use heat sensitive urinal stickers to carry the Action Man message into men’s toilets in pubs, bars and nightclubs
• for the first time, Action Man/Sx3 used the viral email technology and developed an ‘e-shot’ to directly target its key audiences. The Flash animation was emailed to a database of 23,000 men in Northern Ireland, many of whom forwarded it on to friends and colleagues. This cost effective medium was an excellent direct marketing tool
• above the line activity was supported by an innovative PR campaign which combined creative news releases, attention-grabbing photography, human interest stories and endorsement from public figures including politicians and celebrities
• audiences were identified and targeted eg the rural/agri-community. By developing and promoting links with the Ulster Farmer’s Union and Rural Support, Action Cancer/Sx3 secured campaign coverage in the national agri-press
• running throughout June 2002, Action Man capitalised on the World Cup theme through its innovative PR campaign, using local footballers and football facts to appeal to the male population. This included a two week promotion/competition on CityBeat radio.

Getting results 2001-2002:

The main impact of the Action Man campaign is that men’s lives have and will continue to be saved through greater awareness of prostate and testicular cancers. Taboos are being broken down, men are seeking advice, and attitudes are changing.

• calls to the Helpline: 720
• website hits: 115,000
• downloading of leaflets from website: 300
• Action Man clinics (2001 and 2002): 180 attended
• signposted to GP: 100
• June 2002: 10 health promotion talks at leading companies
• 92% of callers were new to Action Cancer’s services

Awards

Sx3 won the 2001 overall NICVA/Camelot LINK Award for its support of Action Cancer and the Action Man campaign. The campaign was also awarded several SCOPE Communication awards for overall winner from a large organisation, as well as the website, information leaflet and promotional concept categories. The campaign also received a commendation at the all-Ireland IRP/PRCA awards in 2002.

Action Man 2003:

Action Cancer’s Action Man continues in 2003, still backed by Sx3. This year it picks the brains of Northern Ireland’s male population in a survey called 'Know Your Bits’ in a bid to establish just how much – or little – they know about prostate and testicular cancers.

The survey can be seen at www.actioncancer.org and all completed questionnaires are in with the chance of winning a free Nokia pay-as-you-go mobile phone plus a £50 top-up voucher!