Combined agency effort leaves lasting safety message to beachgoers for Cancer Institute NSW

On a mission to increase awareness of the shocking number of preventable deaths from melanoma and the importance of sun protection, Sydney agencies Soap Creative, Magnum & Co, Ensemble and Society Social have combined forces to create an effective integrated, content-led campaign for the Cancer Institute NSW.

Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach was the setting of choice to bring to life a creative outdoor strategy that involved murals, a claw machine giving away sunscreen and statements in the sand, all collectively aimed to promote the message of sun safety and showcase the devastating effects of melanoma.

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The campaign cut through to its target audience of young Australians, achieving a combined potential reach of over 24 million.

To reflect Soap Creative’s confronting “Your Time in the Sun” video, directed by Josh Logue, featuring Caitlyn Patterson, a mural at Bondi Beach was progressively altered by renowned street artists Steen Jones and Sid Tapia over a week to show the damaging effects of UV on the skin over time. A second mural on the Bondi Art Wall was a beach inspired piece with a strong call to action urging Australians to #protectyourskin. The mural which was shared organically reached a potential 123,994 people through social media.

To further increase sunscreen application among beachgoers, Cancer Institute NSW’s lifestyle brand, Pretty Shady, set up a claw machine for a week on Bondi Beach giving away more than 4,000 free sunscreen tubes.

In order to showcase how many deaths are predicted to occur in Australia from melanoma over the next five years, Magnum & Co. and Ensemble joined forces to plaster 9,883 across the sand.

Using over 400 sun protection merchandise from Pretty Shady including sun-safe t-shirts, hats and sunscreen, the last piece of which was laid out by Paterson, the bold stunt aimed to simultaneously reiterate the number of lives that could be saved if Australians adopt the Institute’s five step advice of slip, slop, slap, seek and slide.

Says Alecia Brooks, portfolio manager, Skin Cancer Prevention: “With Bondi Beach a popular place for both locals and tourists to enjoy the sun, we’ve been able to reach an audience across NSW, Australia and beyond. We wanted to use this opportunity to warn people of the fatal effects of melanoma in an impactful way through the confronting murals and the figure in the sand, whilst reminding them that it is preventable by adopting sun protection behaviours starting with the free sunscreen we provided.”

The Cancer Institute of NSW’s 2017 campaign educates young people on the seriousness of melanoma and the importance of developing daily sun-protection habits to prevent lives, hopes and dreams, being cut short by skin cancer. For more information visit Your Time in the Sun, Cancer Institute NSW orYouTube.

Bondi Beach Digits:

Music and Sound Design: Electric Sheep