Association Insight International & European Association Insights Spring 2015 | Page 37

Association Success Story | Association Insights The Media: We prepare a global press release linked to the theme of the Day which gives journalists a clear news “hook” which engages them at a global level on the Day. This Press Release is prepared in advance and circulated under embargo the week before February 4th with our media agency leading contact and response. The World Cancer Day campaign is developed primarily by the UICC team in Geneva, led by the Communications Team, with the strategic input of the World Cancer Day Advisory Group, comprising UICC member organisations. The Advisory Group provide their guidance and feedback on a voluntary basis to help ensure a robust, international campaign is developed that will appeal to the full breadth of UICC members, partners and stakeholders. It includes individuals who are the marketing leaders of major cancer organisations around the world. Their experience is critical in the design and delivery of each World Cancer Day campaign. Consultants are also engaged to contribute to other specialised areas including graphic design and press and media. » Motherbird based in Australia: graphic design agency who developed and implemented the campaign’s visual identity. Each year we try to give the Day a clear visual identity, which supports the theme and the sub-themes. This is important as it helps communicate the messages across different languages and cultures. » RedDoor Unlimited based in the UK: PR agency who supported with press/media on and around the Day. They lead the engagement with the world’s media agencies, advising us on the most impactful and engaging Press Release for the day. » Three Stories: An individual consultant who supported the development of the evidence sheets, including liaising with the Advisory Group to help ensure consistency of message and key facts and figures that feed into the campaign. Six organisations provided financial support to the 2015 World Cancer Day campaign, of which the social media campaign is a part: Dutch Cancer Society, World Cancer Research Fund International, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche, Eli Lilly. Challenges » World Cancer Day was not really in the calendars and plans of the cancer community so membership engagement had been a challenge earlier on. There were so many specific cancer days/weeks/months that had been established that it was challenging having members see World Cancer Day as an additional awareness opportunity rather than competition to what was already being done. - The strategy of World Cancer Day relies on the collaboration of our members and them delivering the campaign and its messages down to a grassroots/ public level. In having to invest in building momentum amongst our memb ers as a priority it meant that public awareness of World Cancer Day has lagged behind. »F  inding strong enough media hooks to entice the media to pick up on the Day at a global level. www.associationsnetwork.org - It has also been challenging having some of our members and partners use World Cancer Day as a platform to launch new reports, projects, initiatives, etc. and engage the media in their own countries and communities. »R  emoving “UICC” from the campaign and establishing World Cancer Day as a standalone brand. This was more of an internal challenge amongst the Board as there was concern that removing our name and logo from all the materials would reduce visibility for the organisation. »D  eciding where to allocate the limited budget so that it would have maximum impact. »O  verall it is challenging fundraising for something that has ‘open ownership’ so to speak. In developing World Cancer Day as a standalone brand that can be used by all, we have somewhat become victims of our own success as organisations do not see the need to pay to be associated with the brand. »W  ith such a huge number of events and activities now taking place on World Cancer Day, it means there is more and more to monitor and measure. Unfortunately we don’t yet have an adequate number of members proactively reporting back their efforts (that it would provide an accurate picture of the scope of global activity), that our team at UICC manually checks the websites, media and social media for each of our members to see just how the campaign has been implemented. Although an extremely valuable exercise, it is time and resource heavy. - Showcasing these events and activities are an important part of not only the reporting process, but also for engaging others in future campaigns, so we rely on having great stories and images to share. » The campaign materials have been developed with our members as the primary target audience, but we are now seeing a greater pickup at an individual/public level. It brings us to question whether or not future campaigns should try to address both these audiences and adapt the strategy accordingly. Success Factors Social media has been an underlying growing component of the World Cancer Day campaign over the last few years. This year we used Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and encouraged our members around the world to share their own online campaigns with others. It has been successful because: 1. W  e developed and shared a great theme for the Day (Not Beyond Us). This resonated with all target audiences. The four sub themes allowed individuals and organisations to refine the message to align with their own interests. 2. W  e had a coordinated campaign between social and traditional media with consistent messaging, crafted to resonate with each target audience. 3. The messages were underpinned with comprehensive evidence based information which gave all parties confidence to share them with journalists. All data, statements and conclusions were fully justified. 4. Great ideas were shared rapidly across our members via social media, supporting the website, e-blasts and the © Associations Network 2015 | 37