‘Discover Your Spot’ campaign raises awareness of melanoma among millennials

The Wolves again produce summer campaign for the Melanoma Foundation

This summer, the Melanoma Foundation is launching Discover Your Spot: a new campaign that capitalizes on the vacation feeling. After the previous campaigns Dear 16-Year-Old Me, #checkyourself and Fun in the Sun, this time the Melanoma Foundation is focusing on the millennial. Millennials’ knowledge about melanoma lags considerably behind that of the rest of the Dutch population, according to research by the foundation. The international campaign aims to make young people more aware of the importance of regularly checking their skin. Together with the Spot the Dot foundation and creative production company House of Bandits, PR and communication agency De Wolven is harnessing the power of (social) media and influencers to spread the message as widely as possible.

Undiscovered places
The centerpiece of the campaign is an appealing video with a strong summer holiday feeling, developed by creative production company House of Bandits, Spot the Dot Foundation and PR/communication agency De Wolven. Initially, the viewer thinks that the couple in the video is discovering a beautiful vacation spot, but then comes a confrontational turn. Discovering the spot is actually about a suspicious spot, a melanoma on the girl’s skin. Hence the tagline Discover Your Spot. She does not take the spot seriously and does not go to a doctor. This turns out to be fatal, while the chance of a cure is very high if you are caught early.

The campaign video Discover Your Spot can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZkVcLmYmYQ. After seeing the video, the viewer is directed to the campaign website www.stichtingmelanoom.nl/discoveryourspot. This not only contains more information about melanoma and the risks, but also six steps on how to check yourself.

(Social) media
By using the video on a large scale on Instagram (and other social media platforms) and working with multiple influencers and media partners, De Wolven is creating as much coverage as possible among the target group. In addition, the agency employs a “free publicity” process. Elle, Lindanieuws, Nu.nl, NOS op 3 and Hart van Nederland, among others, have already paid attention to the campaign. The video is also well received by influencers. Various travel and lifestyle bloggers such as Salt in our Hair, That City Chic, Daphne Sonneveld and Jasper de Jong posted the video on their Instagram and received many positive reactions and already thousands of views. Furthermore, the campaign is supported and shared by numerous melanoma organizations worldwide.

Ignorance
Melanoma is the fastest growing form of cancer worldwide, every year more and more people are told they have melanoma. Especially among millennials, there is still a lot of ignorance and misconceptions about melanoma. Also among this group there is less urgency to get themselves checked. Only 20% have this done by a doctor, while melanoma is in the top 3 most common cancers among young people. High time to change this.

Success of previous campaigns
The awareness campaigns of the Melanoma Foundation and organizations such as KWF and Skin Fund in recent years seem to have had an effect. Research by the foundation shows that the percentage of 20- to 50-year-olds who say they know what melanoma is has increased significantly: from 63% in 2016 to 71% in 2018. Proof of growing awareness around melanoma in the Netherlands.

About Melanoma Foundation
Melanoma Foundation has been the patient organization for people with skin and eye melanoma since 1995. The mission of Melanoma Foundation: less melanoma and more cure. The core tasks are information, prevention, advocacy and peer contact. In 2017, over 6,700 people in the Netherlands were diagnosed with melanoma. This number has been rising for years and increasingly affects young people.

About The Wolves
De Wolven is a public relations and communications agency specializing in rake communications and increasing reach through media and influencers. The team of media and communication experts develops creative communication strategies, concepts and PR campaigns for clients such as: Netherlands Circular!, ASN Bank, bol.com, College for Human Rights, Circl and Museumplein Limburg. More information: www.dewolven.com.