While breast cancer awareness campaigns run every October, early detection rates in the Emirates remain below world average. The main problem is it’s difficult to talk to women in the Emirates about breast cancer in public. So we discovered the perfect captive audience in Dubai Taxi Corporation’s Pink Taxis, a fleet of taxis reserved for and driven by women.
With a public yet private medium that’s appropriately pink, we sidestepped inhibitions and surprised passengers with our ‘seatbelt lump’ sleeves. The sleeves were embedded with beads and strapped on seatbelts to sit exactly above the breast area.
Fastening the seatbelt placed the sleeve exactly above the breast area. The 'lump' inside the sleeve was uncomfortable enough for women to notice the message on the sleeve. In some taxis, pressing the lump activated the radio and a pre-recorded message promoted regular breast cancer check-ups. Simple instructional flyers, placed in back seat pockets ensured that our captive audience walked out of our 'Pink Taxis' with the know-how to detect breast cancer.
The Brief
The objective was to increase early breast cancer detection awareness among women, especially Emiratis. The goals were to get word of mouth to spread among our target audience, get them to pick up and read instructional leaflets and find out more about early detection online. We researched early detection, talked to doctors and heavily researched the habits of our target audience. The research led to the insights, the medium and the idea.
Results
Reached 63,237 passengers, increased traffic to Pink Caravan’s website by nearly 30%, increased followers across several social media platforms by 15% and generated an estimated AED 37,000 in PR value in one month.
Over two 200,000 thousand flyers were distributed. The campaign was featured in several locally prominent news outlets online and in print. Combined, the campaign spread far beyond the social circles of the passengers.
Execution
We prepared Pink Taxi drivers with an overview of the campaign and briefed them on how to respond to passengers about the campaign. We installed the sleeves and branded the cars, prepared the website and social media community managers. The campaign ran all of October. Nothing was changed during the roll out.
The Situation
Early detection rates in the Emirates are alarmingly low. The problem? It’s difficult to talk to women about breast cancer in public. When we discovered the perfect captive audience in Dubai Taxi Corporation’s Pink Taxis, a fleet reserved for and driven by women, we knew we had a great opportunity to sidestep inhibitions and get the word out.
The Strategy
The strategy focused on creating a newsworthy experience people would talk about. The novelty was in the surprise and the dramatization, how it’s rarely this easy to find breast cancer. When the media picked up the message, the word spread far beyond the passengers and their social circles.