Aflac marketing campaign goals to begin a most cancers screening ‘motion’

A brand new marketing campaign from Aflac goals to be greater than only a one-off consciousness push. As an alternative, the supplemental medical health insurance firm is hoping it’ll grow to be a full-blown “popular culture phenomenon,” based on Ines Rodriguez Gutzmer, Aflac’s chief communications officer.

The “Verify for Most cancers” marketing campaign, which launched Wednesday, is doing so by connecting the widespread checkerboard sample to the idea of present process common most cancers screenings.

The sample is “in vogue, in furnishings, in décor, within the NASCAR flag—if you begin trying, it’s in all places,” Rodriguez Gutzmer stated in an interview with Fierce Pharma Advertising and marketing. “We wish everybody to see the verify sample and say, ‘OK, get checked. Verify for most cancers.’”

She recommended that the simply remembered affiliation might due to this fact create “a motion,” which is able to undoubtedly assist with Aflac’s “very, very bold” aim for the marketing campaign: rising most cancers screenings by 10% over the subsequent 10 years.

With that in thoughts, she stated, together with monitoring guests to the marketing campaign’s web site and different engagement metrics typical of consciousness campaigns, Aflac can even be monitoring its Wellness Profit filings—which provide policyholders money funds for staying on prime of preventive screenings—and inspecting screening information from the American Most cancers Society, a longtime accomplice.

The attention and training push represents Aflac’s first “all-encompassing, built-in multichannel marketing campaign from a company social accountability perspective,” based on Rodriguez Gutzmer.

It largely took place because of Aflac’s a long time of expertise providing most cancers insurance coverage and its annual Wellness Issues surveys, all of which have given the corporate mass quantities of knowledge on the rising charges of most cancers and its widespread results on sufferers and their households, communities and workplaces—and have due to this fact bolstered the significance of staying updated with beneficial screenings.

“The stats worsen and worse yearly about most cancers,” Rodriguez Gutzmer stated, as Aflac estimates that 1 in 3 Individuals will develop most cancers of their lifetimes, however greater than 90% have delay getting a daily checkup or beneficial screening.

“The explanations are a number of: I don’t have the time; I can’t get time without work work; I’m embarrassed; I don’t wish to know; I’m fearful,” she stated. “However no matter the reason being, it’s simply not good, as a result of the fact is that within the face of uncertainty, what actually helps us as a line of protection is getting checked.”

The info additionally influenced the marketing campaign’s target market, which skews youthful than conventional cancer-focused campaigns.

“The brand new face of most cancers may be very younger,” the exec stated, highlighting rising charges of most cancers diagnoses amongst folks of their 30s and 40s and, thus, the necessity for youthful folks to begin familiarizing themselves with beneficial screening tips and “simply getting checked in the event that they really feel like one thing shouldn’t be proper.”

The “Verify for Most cancers” marketing campaign has recruited fashionable sports activities broadcaster Erin Andrews to its trigger; Andrews was identified with cervical most cancers on the age of 38, was efficiently handled and has since grow to be a vocal advocate for normal screening.

A marketing campaign video made its official debut on ESPN throughout the faculty soccer Aflac Kickoff Recreation on Aug. 31. It follows a girl as she goes about her day, passing repeated examples of the checkered sample by way of a chessboard, nail artwork, a kite, a theater marquee and extra, together with overheard turns of phrase like “verify, please” and “verify that out.”

“The reminders are in all places,” the industrial concludes, as the girl arrives at a physician’s workplace and checks in for a most cancers checkup—all puns very a lot supposed.

Along with the video, the marketing campaign’s on-line push features a wealth of digital and social media belongings, together with an internet site that options details about most cancers screening tips in addition to instruments to evaluate most cancers threat and discover close by screening areas. Offline, the marketing campaign will get its message out by way of billboards, occasion sponsorships and group activations in sure markets—like “folks strolling in checkered jumpsuits within the streets of Boston,” per Rodriguez Gutzmer.

“We’re actually placing this within the fingers of the group. We’re going to make this very grassroots in order that it turns into a motion,” she stated. “It’s not going to occur in every week or two weeks or three months—it’s going to take time, however we imagine that we’re going to get there due to the activations and since there are folks dedicated to the wellness of the communities that we reside in.”

In the meantime, as a part of the marketing campaign’s heavy give attention to social media to succeed in its youthful target market, Aflac is difficult folks to put up pictures of checkerboard patterns they arrive throughout, tagging the corporate and utilizing the hashtag “#CheckForCancer.” For every put up, the insurer will donate $5 to the Aflac Most cancers and Blood Issues Middle of Youngsters’s Healthcare of Atlanta, as much as a complete of $1 million.

Together with encouraging folks to take part within the social media bonanza, Rodriguez Gutzmer concluded with a easy name to motion: “Simply go get checked. Simply actually take cost of your well being, and do your most cancers screenings. Don’t keep away from these.”